Masterchef Fever: Apple Tarte Tatin

As any Masterchef fanatic would know, Celebrity Masterchef begins tomorrow at 7.30pm on channel 10! I have my doubts whether it will be as successful as normal Masterchef, but we'll see how it goes...


To celebrate the return of Masterchef to our television-waves, I have tried and tested the Apple Tarte Tatin from the first pressure test and it turned out to be not so stressful after all hehe. I've made this a couple of times since it aired on tv and have made a few changes to the original recipe since at home we don't usually have a 45 minute time limit imposed on us!


The apples are deliciously soft and caramelised and the pastry has that lovely "crrrunch!" that Matt Preston seems to go on and on about. And of course, anything containing apples and pastry that's fresh out of the oven tastes even better when paired with vanilla ice cream ;)

Benbry Burgers, Manly

I had fully intended on bringing you guys a post about the Merival Winter Feast we had at Lotus last night, but sadly my photos turned out SHOCKINGLY bad due to the dim lighting - even with Photoshop I can't fix them up! But I will say that it was a great 3 course meal we had for $39 - all the dishes were balanced with the ingredients pairing so well together it was like they were destined to be eaten like that. Dan Hong (if you ever read this): you are a genius! For more about the Merivale Winter Feast offer at Lotus and some photos of the dishes, visit eatshow&tell, one bite more, and raspberri cupcakes (essentially we ate the same dishes except the mains were slightly different).


Anyway, onto the real post: BenBry burgers is a little hole in the wall in Manly just off the main strip of shops. The first time I went there was no one there but today it was packed with crowds of people waiting outside for their burgers, even at 2.30pm. It seems word has got out about this place! We ordered our burgers and joined the crowds for the long haul. And boy were we starving when we finally got our order after about 30 minutes wait.

Tropical Feast - $9.50

Sir D ordered the Tropical Feast burger in a meal deal that comes with chips and a drink for an extra $2.95. It comes with a beef patty, crispy bacon rashers, cheese, pineapple, lettuc, tomato onion, avocado, Benbry aioli and tomato sauce. The beef patty was a bit dry but the burger as a whole was a pretty good combination. The burgers were so big that they we weren't even hungry by dinner time.

Sushi Sagunja, Chatswood

Sir D's new reason for getting out of bed every morning: Aburi scallop sushi from Sushi Sagunja!


This is a sushi train place which opened up recently in the Mandarin Centre foodcourt in Chatswood and they are offering all sushi and sashimi on the train for $2.50 everyday! We couldn't go past a bargain like that so one lunchtime we stopped by to see what they had on offer.


I'm a bit of a cynic when it comes to bargains because surely there must be a catch? I thought maybe the sushi wasn't going to be very fresh or maybe there would be not much variety but boy was I wrong! The sushi was very fresh and whilst we were there it was great to see that they were continuously making new sushi for the conveyor.

Salmon nigiri

Tuna nigiri

Salmon belly nigiri

Makan@Alice's, Thornleigh

Sometimes I get cravings for Malaysian or Singaporean food but I'm feeling lazy to travel out too far. So my go-to place for nearby Malaysian food is Makan@Alice's which is a mere 10 minute drive from my place. Tonight Sir D and I arrive quite soon after they open for dinner service. Lucky we do get there early as well because half the tables are marked as reserved, and the rest fill up soon after we arrive. We umm and ahh over all the delicious sounding choices they have on the menu, and we eventually order teh tarik, Hainanese chicken and roti canai with curry.

Teh tarik - $4.50

The teh tarik, a pulled Malaysian milk tea, is generously frothy on top and has a distinct tea taste compared to the extra-sweet teh tarik at Mamak. Although my sweet tooth and I prefer the heady condensed milk flavour of Mamak's teh tarik, Sir D prefers the subtle sweetness of the one at Alice's.

Roti canai with lamb curry - $11.80

Cooking with BLT: Chilli Chocolate Brownies

Don't worry, this post isn't about some weird chilli chocolate brownie that involves bacon, lettuce and tomato as well! It's about a planned chillout night at Sir D's place which quickly turned out to be a boys night + my friend BLT and myself. So what do we do when the boys are playing video games? We bake of course!

Although I love a classic chocolate brownie, sometimes spicing things up with a kick of chilli just makes things a bit more exciting ;). In this case it definitely made things more exciting, since we decided to play a practical baking joke and give some unsuspecting guys a super-mega-chilli hit!

Deadly dousing of chilli...

The brownies were well received by all, even by those who received a slice that had been given the extreme chilli treatment. Funnily enough, most of them thought that there was something wrong with their tastebuds when they tasted the spicyness in the brownie rather than there being something wrong with the brownie itself! BLT and I were beginning to think that we hadn't doused the brownie with enough chilli powder until one person said, "I need some water...!"

Pasticceria Papa, Haberfield

I don't travel out to the inner west often, but whenever I do I'm sure to make the most of it! Sir D and I were out in Ashfield to celebrate a 21st and when I realised that Pasticceria Papa was just across the road, a visit was definitely on the cards.

Carol's delicious pavlovas and pecan tarts

Having consumed some delicious finger food at the party made by the birthday girl herself, we decided to get some goodies from Pasticceria Papa to take-away rather than eating there since we were quite full. Although we arrived there 30 minutes before closing time, the store was still buzzing with people drinking coffee and of course eating slices of their infamous ricotta cheesecake.

Plenty of ricotta cheesecake to go around =)

Max Brenner, Sydney

Even though our meat-fest at Löwenbräu Keller saw us rolling out the door, we were on the prowl for more food to satisfy our dessert stomachs. Max Brenner seemed like the perfect place to indulge in some sweet, chocolatey, post-dinner goodness - and also because we all sorely miss the bald man since his departure from Chatswood :(

Giant choc-almond cookie - $4.00

We manage to grab one of the last remaining tables and make our selections from the menu. Queen Chu chooses a chocolate chip cookie which she generously shares with everyone. It's got pretty good crunch factor and I love the extra melted chocolate drizzled on top. Sir D and I end up scraping the plate with spoons just to get at all the chocolate!

Italian thick hot chocolate (milk) - $5.50

Löwenbräu Keller, The Rocks

Be sure to wear your elastic-waisted pants, because we're about to embark on a meat extravaganza!

Brezel: Home baked pretzel - $3.00 each

A group of us are here tonight to celebrate MB's graduation, and we are greeted at the front by a very friendly man who continues to make funny sounds and faces at Queen Chu throughout the night, and then laughs at himself! Weird and a bit creepy....

Mango Weizen: Franziskaner wheat bier with mango juice - $10.60 for 500mL

Hofbrau Diesel: Dark lager with Coca Cola - $10.50 for 500mL

Mussels poached in white wine, and how to keep your mussels alive!

Continuing our day of seafood-eating, we decided to buy some fresh mussels and cook them at home. We were at Sir D's place, and with his parents gone on holiday, we were at a bit of a loss what to do with said mussels. The friendly fishmongers at Claudio's Seafood at the Sydney Fish Markets had put them in a plastic bag for us - were we to store them in the bag? Store them in water? In the fridge or out?


As you can see, we were absolutely clueless, so after trawling the internet on what to do with them, Sir D compiled some points on how to prepare mussels for future reference. And so I present to you: Sir D's Guide to Keeping Those Babies Alive!

• Mussels and other shellfish such as oysters develop bacteria when they die, and you will get sick if you eat them! Sir D was quite taken aback by this news and thus made it his personal mission to keep his 'babies' alive - hence the name of this guide =P
• If you are not going to use them straight away, store your mussels in the bottom of your fridge, covered with a damp cloth. They're best eaten on the day you buy them, but will keep for a few days in the fridge if required.
• When preparing your mussels, look through them and chuck out any that have cracked or broken shells. If you see any that are slightly open, give them a squeeze and they should close if they're alive. If not, discard these as well.
• You probably want to get rid of the crap on the shells. To do this, grab a scrubbing brush and scrub the barnacles and other things off the surface of the shell under running water.
• You probably also want to get rid of the beards (those hairy looking things sticking out of the shell). To do this, grab hold of the beard and wiggle it from side to side, whilst pulling firmly. It should eventually break free from the mussel. If your mussel is being stubborn, you may have to cut it off with some scissors.
• Now that your mussels are clean on the outside, we have to get rid of any sand and other crap on the inside. To do this, soak the mussels in fresh water for about 10 minutes so that they can "breathe" and expel any sand. Remember to do this just before you cook them, otherwise they may die (and we don't want that happening!)
• Remove them from the water and check that the mussels with open shells are still alive by squeezing them again. Now you're ready to cook them!

Mussels poached in white wine

Admittedly our pot of white wine mussels didn't turn out to be the prettiest dish on the planet, but they sure tasted delicious with the briney taste of the mussels and the rich, creamy tomato sauce. And none of the sauce went to waste of course because we soaked it up with a fresh baguette ;)


We also had the 2nd dozen of oysters which we bought from the fish markets, which were still just as fresh and delicious as the dozen that we ate earlier in the day

The Sydney Fish Markets, Pyrmont

On an uncharacteristically warm (28ºC!) Sunday in winter, I had a craving. For seafood. And what better place to get fresh seafood than the Sydney Fish Markets? I don't go to the fish markets that often but when we do I get super excited because I know it means dozens of freshly shucked oysters, usually some sashimi, prawns, and the occasional crab or lobster. My idea of heaven!

Fresh sashimi cuts at Peter's Fish Market

Cooked and fresh blue swimmer crab