Pandan Panna Cotta!

As I was thinking what to call this blog entry, I contemplated "Green with Guilt" but then I thought, is guilt green? No jealousy is green... so anyway I thought as well that is perhaps not such a nice title for a lovely dessert! Although honestly this is quite the guilty dessert to consume!

I made these individual pandan panna cottas for a potbless we went to a couple of weekends ago! :) I stumbled upon this recipe from "Smell & Taste are my memory"'s blog (http://jinhooi.blogspot.com/) - and thought it was a great asian twist to a traditional western dessert! Check out the blog for the receipe :)

It worked out well - however the only difficulty is finding the gelatine sheets - Adrian found some from me from a chef friend of his! This is a rich, extremely creamy dessert and the pandan hint is just perfect :) I loved that the colours separated a tiny bit at the moment (somehow it just happened!)

I drizzled some coconut milk for the colour contrast, and decorated it with half a fresh strawberry and some coconut husk pieces (sold in most Asian grocery shops).

[p.s. Big thanks to G for the photos!]

Taiwanese Cakes!

The bubbletea craze that originated in Taiwan in perhaps the early 21th Century has not only toured Asia, but also Australia! There are a couple of popular joints in Perth that asians can get a taste of being in Asia.

One of the more popular, and older chains called "Utopia" recently opened up in the Myaree area. I have to admit, it's actually pretty okay. They serve bubble tea and these really cute cakes! And they have Karoke (Im not one for singing but a lot of asians do like it!).

For those from Asia who are homesick, you should come here! Not only can you purchase these asian delights (which have a selection of green tea, taro (yam) delights), you can get your favourite bubbletea (try the red bean sago - it's different - a huge sago with one bean inside!) and you are "blasted" with asian music.

The above dessert (left) is the Mango mousse with the rice cake skin - it's a good concept. Outside is this sticky, elastic pastry (which is meant to be mango I suspect but doesnt really taste like it!) and inside is layers of mango mousse and chocolate sponge. Separately they are all probably good, but a combination of them in a mouthful is kinda weird. Your tastebuds are not exactly sure where to start from. I think its about $3.50

The dessert above (right) is actually quite pleasant. A very light sponge, very prettily decorated (although I kinda think it is weird to use parsley as part of a cake decoration) and layers of cream and fruit. Well presented for $3.50.



Left - this is the green tea bun with a red bean paste inside. Not bad. $1.80 - I like the asian breads, they are a little different to the western ones in that they are softer and have a bit more flavour to it - usually have a hint of sweetness to it.

Right - again, a green tea swirl with a thick green tea paste. Not bad. $2.20



The cakes are packed in this cute little box for you to take away!

Oh and one great thing about this place is that they are open till 12am on weeknights and weekends till 2am. An additional place you can add to your list of hang out spots should your local cafe close its doors on you! :)

Cooking catch up! From Japanese to Western!

I'm going to be making up for my blogging absence of recent times! :) Hence the double entries in one night!!!

Last weekend was full on cooking *claps*! I had some of my old girlfriends over for dinner, and what's really unique about our bunch is that

1) we never fail to arrive late,
2) never fail to COOK AMAZING food
3) Always cook enough to feed an army,
4) have more courses than people at dinner :)

We always have way too much food but that's what I love about it - everyone seems to always be able to throw something tog really quite amazing! The theme was "Japanese" - see pictures below.



On Sunday (the same weekend), our cell had a BBQ. Adrian and I made a roasted vegetable, with bacon and chorizo pasta salad. It was really yummy! Really easy - literally chop the eggplant, pumpkin, and cherry tomatoes and the fetta cheese, season and drizzle with oil, bake in the oven. Cook the pasta will al dente, and toss the roasted veggies with the baby spinach and olives. Best eaten chilled. Especially with a BBQ.


Okay - this was dessert on Saturday night. I LOVE strawberries... I saw a huge pile of them at the shops yesterday and that made me happy. Bizarre but true. It's just so sweet, so nice... hard to describe *sigh with happiness* I'm going to try and make full use of the strawberry season!!! See future entries :)

This is one of my latest favourite crowd pleaser and also chef pleaser desserts! Why? Because it is so simple to do and looks fantastic! Just melt some chocolate in the microwave (Warning: be extreme careful and watchful as you do this - otherwise you may set your smoke alarm off!) and dip the strawberries in, place them on baking paper and chill them.


I hadnt made this in ages... but now I remember why I like cooking it! It is fast to cook, tasty and really quite healthy! (besides the salt content :P) because you dont use oil at all. I think the proper name is Oyaku Don - the non-katsu version.

Don't overcook the egg - pour it over at the last minute, let it cook for a couple of minutes, till the edges start to cook, turn off the heat and cover for a few minutes then serve immediately on top of japanese rice.

Gyoza! Japanese dumplings! I am so grateful to this japanese book for teaching me in simple terms how to fold these dumplings. I have never been good at folding but I think this method (although not visible here) was good - take a piece of pastry and put in a bit of the meat filling, fold it over and wet the edges to seal the dumpling, and then crimp/fold the edges to form a fan shape.

Okay that's about it for now! Hope you all are doing well! I will blog again soon - I do have quite a few entries more to go!!!

Have a great week - those in Perth, hope you did not melt in today's 39 degree heat!!!

Wedding Bells Again!!!

Yes wedding bells again! Infact 2 more wedding bells!!! My good friend Cheryl got married over a month ago - I was honoured to be her maid of honour! :) It was so much fun! We had a lovely time before and during the wedding. I took a day off during the week leading up to the wedding, and we went to this lovely spa place in Observation City Hotel - called Vanilla Spa. We had the Vanilla slice package! Wow what a treat!!! We then went to Trigg Cafe for lunch - I have heard so much about it, and did it meet expectation? Well the view was amazing - and unlike Cottesloe, it was "untouched" - it wasn't touristy and didnt have heaps of shops or anything around it. Will blog about it next!

Anyway, back to the wedding! The day was fun! It was tiring - I can't imagine how tired Cheryl and Michael must have been! but hey I was so glad and honoured to be a part of their special day. I couldnt imagine a better way to have spent a day with such a good friend!

Check out the photos below... :)

Mirrin and I

Me, Cheryl and Mirrin

Cheryl's lovely bouquet!!!
I was SO delighted to have my own fresh bouquet! :)

Edwina, Holly, me and Sasha! UWA Uni mates! :)

So what's the OTHER wedding bell??? I'm going to be Bridesmaid again!!! Yay!!! For a really good friend - Eehui! Remember my gardening, rose farm and weeding buddy? Yep I'm going to be part of another wedding in 2008! Stay tuned!!! :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and stay COOL! It's going to be 39 degrees tomorrow (Monday) in Perth, Western Australia!

(p.s. I made a couple of new things over the weekend - will blog them soon!!!)