Oh Lordy, lardy me....the CRONUT craze...

Yes, I'm a sucker for the latest food fad, especially one that started in Manhattan and has made it's way here. Mention that people are queueing like crazy or it's a limited edition food I'm there. Or trying to get there as soon as possible, as long as it's just not too hard!

So I'd salivated read about the latest food obsession. Cronuts- a cross between croissants and donuts. Yes, you read that right- how can you make a donut or a croissant even more delish, even more satisfying? Cross them!

This Sunday's Sunday Age magazine listed them as the hottest new thing!!!

I'd forgotten all about it after my initial fatty infatuation...then I was walking past Cacao in Fitzroy St StKilda and I got a sign.. a sign advertising flaky donuts in chocolate brownie, passionfruit meringue or blueberry...a sign saying to get in quick as last Saturday they sold out!

I had no choice. I went in and wandered round casually, like I was making up my mind, like I was't already zoning in on the flaky donuts!

I sidled up to the cabinet full of these cronuts......nonchalantly  asked the temptation pushing helpful smiling sales assistant which flavour was best.

I restrainedly (more financial that calorie frugality-they were $5 each) purchased only one- though I did almost accidentally pick up some other lucky guys bag with three cronuts in it!

OMG. The crispy flaky layers, the hint of brownie icing/mousse in the middle and on top...probably more fried donut taste with all the additional surface area for oil uptake....willI go back...HELL YEAH I will...but maybe as a once a month treat for as long as they last!

Boo xox

Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meal Challenge

Grocery shopping and regular home cooking are my personal chores from hell.  It's so bo-ring.  I circle the supermarket aisles aimlessly, uninspired and walk out with toiletry items and dog food when I am supposed to be shopping for tonight's dinner.  Well no more!  I have finally taken the responsibility of menu planning for the week so that at the very least I can serve relatively balanced meals for the family.  No more stressing at 5pm as to what to cook.  No more take-away (well I shall limit that to once per week, baby steps)

Over the years, I get given by well meaning friends, cook books.  They never get used or referenced other than to ogle at Nigella (prreeetty laadeee).  I stumbled on Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals and decided I shall pick six recipes from there for the week and shop accordingly.  So for the week ahead I have decided on conjuring:

Mighty mackerel, mixed tomato and quinoa salad
Chorizo and squid Greek style couscous salad
Sizzling chicken fajitas, salsa, grilled peppers, rice and beans
Mexican tomato soup, chili nachos, veggie and fetta sprinkles
Keralan veggie curry, poppadoms, rice and minty yoghurt
Pork marsala with porcini rice and spring greens

The verdict:

Cost for the grocery shop = $160 to procure the ingredients for the weekly menu.  Not to bad considering eating out for the week would cost more than that. 

Yumminess factor = 8/10.  Bubbachuck (child) was willing to try all the components of each meal.  Not much waste

Time efficiency factor = 8/10.  Although it claims to be 15 minute recipes, it generally took about 20 -25 minutes to prepare.  It may take Jamie 15 minutes but I'm no professional chef and have only a nodding acquaintance with my kitchen

I leave you to salivate (or not) over an image of my handiwork. 

Beaker Out

Pork marsala with porcini rice and spring greens

 



Daiso Stake-Out

I am late on the Daiso discovery trail but whoa, what a find!  In case you have been hibernating in cave like I have been, Daiso is a Japanese version of a $2 shop except it is $2.80 shop.  Every glorious thing is $2.80.  The stock anything and everything from personal care, household items, food, gadgets.  Apparently all their stock is from Japan with the usual quirky innovations you would expect from the Japanese. 

The Daiso I visited is in the basement on the corner of Swanston and Bourke St, Melbourne.  I was literally hyperventilating from excitement at the aisles and aisles of weird and wonderful stuff to finger.  Here are a couple of offerings for you:


 

 

A portable ashtray with distinguisher designed to sit in your pocket

An egg mould.  To mould your hard boiled eggs into heart and star shapes.  Because you can!

Nappies for dogs.  Complete with tail hole.

It's like modern art - a complete wall of false eyelashes

 

I spent 60 very enjoyable minutes, touching, touching everything.... and came out with the following purchases:

 





Newsprint gift wrapping - not quirky but needed some as have ran out
Eye brow pencil - was too scared to try their other cosmetic offerings on my actual skin as they were priced at $2.80 - so cheap it makes me apprehensive
Kombucha tea - otherwise known as kelp tea.  Salty. 
Silicone nose scrubber - weird and wonderful and will try tonight!
iphone protector film - boring but where else could I get this for $2.80?!

Operation Rapunzel!

I am in my late 30s and I'm thinning. 

Phew!  There.  I've said it. Very cathartic. 

It snuck up on me so insidiously.  For years, I've asked friends, "Do you reckon?  Could I possibly be?"  And my faithful friends have denied any sparseness upon my topness.  But I am confronting the God awful truth.  Playing trichologist, I believe decades of being on the pill, thyroid disease and just simply not taking time to care has contributed to the thinning which is more pronounced near my part and crown. 

I have come up with a plan of attack - Operation Rapunzel. 

My thyroid condition has been stable for a year or so now, so tis the right time to strike.  I have stopped the pill, so am a raging hormonal mess but I like to think I will eventually be a hormonal mess with a glossy mane. 

For the record, here is my parting and crown now (please don't gasp in horror as I did.  It's not often I have a bird's eye view of my issi-hue) :

 

 

 





After reviewing the literature on the internet, frankly I'm frightened of trying anything too chemically laden for fear I fry off my few precious strands.  So I'm going the organic / natural route. 

Part 1:
Spray and massage in Apivita Propoline Hair Loss Treatment for Women, twice daily

Part 2:
Coconut oil scalp mask once weekly. 

Part 3:
Apple cider vinegar dilution sprayed after each shampooing.  You can probably guess - I reek of fish and chips with a top note of apple. 

Operation Rapunzel will run for 3 months with a review thereafter.


Beaker out. 

Bug Brunch - Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

I recall a conversation I had with my mum when I was around 10 years old concerning my love for all foods deep fried and roasted.  "If I deep fried poo, would you eat it?" my mum had asked.  And the answer was a resounding Yes!-  I would eat anything that was crunchy and salty. 

The Bug Brunch held at the Melbourne Museum for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival had the crunchy snacks in the bag.  We were treated with an easy to comprehend layman's presentation on bugs as food from a cultural, environmental and nutritional perspective.  After impatiently waiting for the 40 min or so of the educational spiel to end, we sampled various crunchy insects. 

All the insect we ate were farm raised and oven roasted.  What did they taste like?  Well generally nutty.  Very crunchy and the cricket legs then to get stuck between the teeth.  Not unpleasant.  They remind me of the roasted skins of peanuts or wasabi peas without the wasabi.  Crunchy in an airy type of way. 

Jimminy Cricket

Jimminy Cricket come to Mama

Cheddar Cheese worm.  Pick of the bunch

Big grub which we did not attempt to go

TP daintily nibbling on a mealworm

Finally......a golden fields lobster roll experience....

I've been waiting yearning dreaming of Golden Fields, of Andrew McConnell's south of the river restaurant. The no booking policy has put my friends who live on the other side of the river off...it's hard enough to get them to come across Punt Rd but the uncertainty and wait involved with no bookings...asking too much...(though me spending most of my life and weekends stuck on Punt Rd is all together another thing???)

Miss MMM, the jetstar and I were due a fine dining experience and felt Sunday lunch may be our best opportunity. At midday on a cold summer Sunday the place was quiet, after the breakfast gangs had cleared out.

The beginning and end of my meal was decided before I arrived. The reviews and blogosphere had been going crazy about the New England lobster roll, with kewpie mayo and watercress since before the place opened. I felt left out, I wanted some lobster love. I was slightly anxious, apprehensive that the hype was too much and the reality wouldn't stand up.

The relief and the bliss of biting into a buttery brioche bun that is gently crispy but gives way so beautifully, to the salty sweet kewpie mayo (an old friend), the peppery watercress and the sweet sweet firm lovely poached crayfish. Miss MMM and jetstar devoured these little beauties in a few quick bites. I slowly savoured mine, enjoying each fulsome bite. I felt a little sense of loss when mine was gone. A little bit of heaven for $15....no wonder these are doing roaring trade as a take away option. I wish I still lived within walking distance...

As it was lunch and we were eating light we decided to share a couple of cold salads. The shredded chicken, sesame paste, home made cold rice noodles and chilli oil ($15) was my choice. It arrived looking quite plain, white chicken, thick rectangular organic looking translucent rice noodles, a spattering of coriander and some orangey yellow chilli oil. The waitress advised the salad required mixing and left us to it.

Tasty, sweet tender chicken with a delicate sesame taste and subtle chilli. It was hard to control myself and not scoop all the salad up. Especially as I was a little concerned about our last savoury dish, steamed eggplant, silken tofu and pickled chillies. I like tofu. I like silken tofu, the  soft smooth silky slurpiness of it. Eggplant just doesn't excite me. In fact I dislike it. However my eating companions love it.

The eggplant had a lovely soft non slimy texture and with the gorgeous tofu (one round of it each), and the garlicky chilli sauce it was beautifully matched. In so far as I would order this again. Can't normally say this for the eggplant!

And then, the other moment I'd be eagerly anticipating since the first reviews. Ever since my first experience with a ladree salted caramel macaron at Harrods in London in 2006 I have been salted caramel obsessed. On a slight aside, my vote for best salted caramel macaron in Melbourne is....La Belle Miette in Hardware Lane...little bites of taste bud heaven! We had spoken of sharing desserts. When it came to it I couldn't. I announced my dessert was going to be for me only. After reassuring herself that she could have a taste of mine jeststar ordered the cherries, baked savarin, walnut ice cream and brandy.

The soft sweet cake, cinnamony walnut ice cream and brandy cherries was good. No comparison to my and Miss MMM's dessert. Peanut butter parfait, salted caramel and soft chocolate. Want. Need. More....

Now. Please. PLEASE. Initially when I tasted the parfait I was disappointed. It was rich and thick and very peanutty. When combined with the thick rich salty peanutty caramel and soft chocolaty cream it was all you could ask for in a dessert. Jetstar had a taste and came back for another taste. I begrudgingly allowed her the second taste, quickly moving my spoon back in to limit her attack. I scrapped the bowl clean, and if i was somewhere less salubrious I would have licked the bowl.

I will be back. Whether with friends or own my own, whether eat in or take away. I will have more from Golden Fields.

Boo xox

Hutong baby!

A friend, Miss MMM and I headed into town to check out the Markit@fed square market with lots of cool funky designers. After exploring 3/4 of the market we decided lunch was in order to revive our flagging interest...due purely to a growling stomach rather than a lack of eye candy. We walked to Chin Chin..it was open...didn't look too busy. Only to hear there was a 45 minute wait. My stomach couldn't wait nor could the market so we decided to try our luck at Hutong.

On a weeknight I've found you can now get into Hutong with a booking made a week or so ahead. I wanted dumplings. Not the cheap arse cheerful dumplings you can get in the city but the happy making chilli dumplings from Hunton. We entered....four people were sitting waiting. My heart and stomach sank a little. The lady with the headset and clipboard advised she could seat us immediately but we'd need to exit the table within an hour. Deal!

Miss MMM hadn't tried the dumplings here so placed her lunch in my hands. She was quite happy with the result!

The shao-long bao were what first got Hutong so much attention. I still enjoy them and am excited by the soup inside the dumpling! So clever! Such a little show! I love slurping the clear light broth, and then dipping the remaining dumpling into the soy ginger dipping sauce. We were both too hungry to wait to take a photo.... Ten dumplings for $11.80. A good start. The the little bits of heaven, the happy chilli dumplings that bring joy in every bite. The chiili oil sauce has the right amount of chilli- just enough to add warmth, and to gently build up but not too much to limit the taste to a burn.

The chilli oil is thick and coats the dumpling so beautifully. Little pieces of chilli, spring onion and the occasional peppercorn dot the oil. Miss MMM was converted to the chilli dumplings, and was I think a little disappointed she had to finish off the shao-long bao. We both were dipping them into the chilli oil to slurp up as much of it as possible. Eight bites of heaven for $8.80. $8.80 to take me to my happy place.

xox Boo