Strawberry and Champagne Cake

Apologies for being MIA lately! Unfortunately life (or more specifically, Uni) has got in the way of blogging again and although I've got a backlog of photos and tasty eats waiting to be shared with you all I just haven't had the time to post them up.

This post is a bit special though, and it's for my sister Charm who just turned 18 a few days ago but had a bit of a sad, uneventful birthday because it was smack bang in the middle of HSC study time. Not to mention that she has also been sick for the past 2 weeks and I couldn't even take her shopping to buy a present for her.

So, cake it is! I do love baking cakes for people's birthdays but I always struggle with coming up with ideas for what cake to bake. I figured something with strawberries since they're in season and wonderfully sweet at the moment, plus something a little boozy since she is now of legal drinking age! Then I remembered Steph's gorgeous Pink Champagne and Strawberry Cake and knew I had to do something similar for Charm's birthday.

The strawberries feature in the cake itself, which has chunks of strawberries scattered throughout the batter, while the champagne (ok so I'm a bit poor to afford real champagne, so technically it's sparkling wine) features in the buttercream icing. The flavour of the champagne is quite light and just slightly tart so that it offsets the sweetness of the cake, but my family, being Asian and all with an instilled fear of icing and cream in cakes (or is it just my family?), was still scraping the thicker layer of icing off from the top. This was probably due to my crappy uneven icing skills - it's not as smooth as I would have liked but hey at least the layering of the cakes worked out well and it wasn't collapsing!

Anyways, happy 18th birthday Charm and good luck with the HSC! We will go shopping, throw a proper birthday party and watch Vampire Diaries (maybe) once it's all over!

Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness

Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness just after opening

October is one of my favourite months. Not only because it seems to be full of birthdays, and is only 2 months away from Christmas, but because every year in October the Crave Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) is on and it's a month of eating, eating and more eating. This year, SIFF kicked off with a series of BBQ madness events, where themed BBQ events were held all around Sydney to celebrate the barbecue grill. I was up early on Saturday morning to go to the Malaysia Kitchen BBQ Madness event, held in Church St Mall, Parramatta.

The Love Goddess - Wanitha Tanasingam

The event began at 9am and was an early start for me on a Saturday morning, but Malaysia Kitchen's ambassador, Wanitha Tanasingam (aka the "Love Goddess"), was there to wake everyone up with her enthusiasm and sheer passion for Malaysian food. Apart from expounding the wonders of sambal belacan, she also demonstrated two dishes with the help of Sara from Belly Rumbles and Lorraine Wearne, the Lord Mayor of Parramatta.

Wanitha and her two helpers: Sara and Lorraine

Wanitha cooked up some sotong bakar, a marinated and barbecued squid, and ayam panggang, a spicy grilled chicken. Some samples of the squid were passed around and this was the perfect thing to wake up my stomach, with the sweet, tender squid being barbecued to a nice char on the outside, and a spicy flavour coming through from the marinade.

Sotong Bakar on the grill

Next up in the demonstration kitchen was the ever delightful Florence Tan, who travelled from Malaysia to attend this event. I've seen her on Poh's Kitchen before and she is just as a lively and bubbly in real life as she is on TV.

Florence Tan beginning her cooking demonstration

Xanthi, Sydney

Xanthi interior (left); Makedonikos Tsipouro (right)

It's Greek hospitality at its best. Xanthi is one of the latest additions to Level 6 on Westfield Sydney, serving Greek food from 8am til late in an elegant setting with beautiful tiled, mosaic-ed walls, billowing curtains and drapes, and colourful lamps hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant boasts a rotating spit, freshly made filo and an ouzo trolley with quite possibly the largest selection of ouzo available in Sydney.

Pickled octopus

Tonight we're here to feast on a sumptuous Greek banquet to celebrate the birthday of three special ladies. We've barely sat down for five minutes before David Tsirekas, head chef and owner of Xanthi (and previously of the Petersham favourite, Perama), offers us bottles of Tsipouro, a Greek pomace brandy. "It's to get your appetites going", we're told, and we're instructed to eat it along with the pickled octopus. At around 45% alcohol, we quickly dilute it with the ice and water that's provided which makes the liquid turn cloudy (my inner nerd compelled me to Google it and it's called the Ouzo Effect!). The tsipouro is heady with aniseed flavour and, not being an aniseed fan, I think Demos was right on the money when he described it as being like "lighter fluid". The pickled octopus on the other hand serves well to awaken the tastebuds with the lemony, vinegary flavour. But I have to remember to pace myself because we've ordered the $55 banquet menu (and let David decide what to send out) and there is still plenty of food to come.

Greek salad

Hurricanes Grill, Top Ryde

It's all about the meat.

It's a little embarrassing to admit, but this is the first time I've ever been to Hurricanes. I'd heard some great things about their ribs so I thought it was high time for me to finally check it out for myself and see what all the hype is about. With an army of meat-loving friends (no vegetarians here!), we set out to sample some of the meaty offerings of Hurricanes and to see whether the Top Ryde restaurant matched up to the quality of the Bondi and Darling Harbour locations. Lucky for us, JC had booked ahead for a table on a Saturday night and when we arrive at 7.30pm, the bar is packed with waiting customers and a queue is streaming out of the restaurant into the courtyard.

Garlic roll - $4.50

The service is a bit hit and miss and it takes us quite a long time to get our order taken down. On the recommendation of some of the more seasoned Hurricanes diners, we start with some garlic bread which is served in its entirety on a wooden serving board. Incisions are made into the bread and garlic and herb butter is slathered on the surfaces. And oh my is there a lot of butter - which is what makes it so delicious! The bread crust is super crunchy, sending shards of bread all over the surface of the table when the bread is ripped apart and the bread innards? Well they just taste like melty garlic butter =D

Rib eye steak 350g - $33

Himalayan Char Grill, Crows Nest

Pappadums - $3

I've never tried Himalayan food before. In fact, I didn't even know which countries the Himalayas lay across until I checked it out on everyone's favourite encyclopaedia - Wikipedia - and found out that the Himalayas actually goes through Bhutan, China, Nepal, India, Burma, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While Himalayan Char Grill serves Nepalese cuisine, I notice some influences from all over these Asian regions, particularly in these pappadums which I normally associate with Indian cuisine. These masala pappadums, received with compliments of the chef, are slightly spicy but not oily at all, and are served with a spiced yoghurt.

Interior

It takes us a little while to find the restaurant which is tucked away in a building that houses quite a few little restaurants. Even though Sir D and I venture out to Crows Nest quite frequently and have walked past the building several times, we've never actually been inside. Himalayan Char Grill is a small restaurant with vivid green walls decorated with Nepalese artefacts and pictures of the Himalayas. It's a quite Wednesday night but the place is quite popular, especially with the locals who are frequently popping in for some takeaway or chatting to the staff like old friends.

Momo - $11.90