My husband and I used to go through whopping great jars of S&W mayo. I admit I was a tad unhealthily obsessed with it, in both mind and body. I used to literally dip crackers in it and use it as a dip. Yes seriously. Until I tried making my own. The secret is good, fresh eggs and a mild flavoured oil. I made this once with a really strong fruity Greek olive oil and we couldn’t eat it. Something like a Grapeseed oil or mildly flavoured Olive oil is ideal. And by Mayonnaise I mean that lovely creamy stuff like S&W, Hellman’s or Kewpie mayonnaise. Not that awful tangy Praise or Kraft stuff that calls itself Mayonnaise.

Forget hand whipping and beating which will only give you a sore wrist and arm. In this case, the food processor is your best friend and within 3-4 minutes you’ll have your own batch of freshly made mayonnaise, no preservatives or additives. The fast motion of the food processor will help ensure that that it won’t curdle as opposed to using a slower hand beating motion. The only thing that you may find annoying is the sound of the food processor (my dream, a silent food processor) but for a few minutes of noise, I hope you’ll find the reward is well worth it.

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My father is one those people, you may know the kind, that will not eat anything that is bad for him unless absolutely necessary (i.e. a daughter guilting him into eating a cupcake by saying that she baked it especially for him). My mother swings the other way, she loves sweets and butter although she is attempting to curb it by removing the icing from the cupcake before eating it.

The only things that my father will voluntarily eat without the added persuasion of guilt is these particular nuts and Portuguese custard tarts. Indeed, I gave him a huge jar of these for his birthday and he happily polished them off in no time. Nigella is right, once you start eating these spicy, aromatic toasted nuts you will find resistance is useless…even for a disciplined eater like my father.

The Union Square Cafe’s Bar Nuts

More picking food, and ludicrously easy to make. You might think that nuts, untampered with, are perfect picking food as they are, and up to a point you’d be right. But try these, modestly adapted from the recipe for spiced nuts served at the Union Square Café in New York and you’ll truly know what perfection is.

• 500g assorted unsalted nuts, including: peeled peanuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans and whole unpeeled almonds
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh rosemary (from 2 x 8cm sprigs)
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I’ve also used smoked paprika and it is delicious although less spicy)
• 2 teaspoons dark muscavado sugar
• 2 teaspoons Maldon salt
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.

2. Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven till they become light golden brown, about 10 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, muscovado sugar, salt and melted butter.

4. Thoroughly toss the toasted nuts with the spiced butter and serve warm. And once you eat these, you will never want to stop.

Recipe adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson

Believe it or not, this is my first time to Mother Chu’s. For some reason or another, we always end up elsewhere yet I always stop and have a look at the women at the front folding and making dumplings. There’s something so rhythmically hypnotic about the process that keeps me entertained. Call me simple.

One Friday night we find ourselves hungry and in need of a good meal. We walk towards the main area of Chinatown and I see the red sign and say “Ooooh let’s go to Mother Chu’s!”. I have no idea who Mother Chu is, perhaps she’s one of the dumpling ladies. We opt for outside seating as the inside is crowded and try and make sense out of the two enormous menus we are given. It seems there is a section of small Taiwanese snacks and dumplings including savoury shallot pancakes, flaky pastries, and rice rolls.

There are also noodle dishes, rice dishes and meat dishes in traditional taiwanese flavours as well as cantonses style dishes. I’m drawn to the Angelica Mutton soup as I’ve only had mutton once in my life but unfortunately they are out of it. As my husband loves beef noodle soup, he orders a Szechuan version (spicy) $7 with suan choi (hand made pickled cabbage) $1 extra and I order a pork mince with rice $5 and we order some snacks to share including a pork flakey pastry $2.20, beef pancake $2.50, glutinous rice rolls with pork floss $3 and spicy seaweed salad $4. That’s $24.70 she says and holds out her hand. Oh and you need to pay when you order.

Before we’ve had a chance to even contemplate our surroundings, the soup, mince with rice and seaweed salad arrive. We have to ask for water a few times but finally get it fourth time lucky.

Szechuan Beef Noodle Soup $7

The Szechuan beef noodle soup has a slick of chili oil at the top and features shanghai noodles, thin slivers of roast beef and an spicy and indeed fairly fiery chili oil infused broth. The noodles are way too soft for me and whilst the beef is nice, the broth is a little plain and seeming flavoured mostly of chili oil. I leave this to my husband who confesses that it is too hot for him and unlike most noodle soups where he will finish every drop of the soup, most of this soup is left behind.

Suan choi (hand made pickled cabbage) $1 extra

The Suan Choi is a small side dish of cabbage, full of flavour and sesame oil and quite delicious.

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“Will NQN ever shut up about her birthday?” I hear you ask. I totally hear you and understand what you are saying and I will cease and desist with the birthday babbling just as soon as I’ve finished with writing about my last birthday dinner. My third dinner was with my parents Rose and Ronald. We do a separate dinner with them you see as they don’t like traveling outside of the Eastern Suburbs (certainly not crossing the bridge, it’s a mental barrier) and they both like Japanese food. I’ve heard that Rise is like “Tetsuya for everyone” in that it is fusion cuisine, but at a more reasonable price. I remember my one and only visit to Tetsuya very fondly so I am keen to try this alternative.

So at 6pm we’re standing at the mysterious looking red door of Rise and are greeted with smoky Jazz music. The small restaurant is dimly lit and already one third full and we’re led to a table right by the window. There is only the Omakase degustation on offer tonight so that takes the drama out of ordering and while admiring the simple pebble chopstick rests, before long we’re greeted with our first course. The menu is Japanese influenced by Chinese and Korean cuisine unlike Tetsuya which is French Japanese. Since the restaurant is dimly lit we didn’t feel we could use the Flash as it would’ve made for quite the strobe light show for the other patrons, therefore the photos aren’t anywhere as good as we wanted. So let me apologise in advance before proceeding with the food.

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If you start to see a pattern of me reviewing restaurants around the Kingsford way, you are indeed sensing a theme. My husband and I are houseminding for my parents who live in the Eastern Suburbs and we thought that while we were here, we might take advantage of the fascinating eatery studded strip of Anzac Parade.

Tea Inn is a Taiwanese Fast Food and Tea House that I haven’t been to for years. It’s just the order this one afternoon when we need to eat something sustaining but quickly. I don’t eat McDonalds so this is the next best thing. It’s full with students and young people no doubt from the nearby university.

Bubble Pearl tea is like the Coke of Asia, the chewy fat pearls of tapioca sucked up through the fat straws in a satisfying way. My husband loves these so we order the most interesting coffee combination: Pomegranate Coffee with pearls $3.80. We also ask what is good and authentically Taiwanese. The waitress suggest the Sa Cha Beef and rice ($8) and the deep fried chicken in salt and pepper with noodles ($8). For dessert we choose a shaved ice dessert topped with peanuts, sweet lotus seed and black plums for $5.80 (any of the sweet toppings can be ordered in a singular shaved ice for $4.80 each). The menu is huge and seafood dishes top the range at $14-$15 whilst other meats such as chicken or pork dishes are $12 and there are also Laksas ($9.5) and noodle dishes ($8) as well as 2 pages of drinks and desserts of the shaved ice variety.

There are even $5 dishes such as pork mince on rice for the truly frugal and a ridiculously cheap afternoon tea menu featuring dishes from $4.80-$7.50 which includes a drink.

Pomegranate Coffee with pearls $3.80

We’ve asked them to hurry as I need to make a beauty appointment and within minutes, our dishes are making their way to the table. The Pomegranate coffee is surprisingly delicious and lightly tinged pink. It’s not particularly strong in pomegranate flavour though but it is good-it reminds me of Japanese iced coffee or coffee jelly. Curiously, the cups of water we ask for are a little salty in taste!

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