Kids can get away with so much more than adults and whilst “It’s not fair” is a cry often uttered by outraged children, sometimes I think they have no idea how good they have it. I’m embarrassed to admit that I recently bribed M’s son S to work his magical kid charms by asking an adult, in a cute little kid’s voice if they would do their magic trick (which I desperately wanted to see).
My logic was that the request just wouldn’t have been the same from a grown adult. In fact, I had already asked and my wish was not granted. And later when my husband reminded me that I was in fact being a bad influence on them I was of course suitably chastised but I reminded him that S’s eight year old little brother In piped up mid negotiation saying “Tell them you are dying! Then they’ll have to do it!”.
His reward for asking nicely for something to be done? The cheesecake of his choice. This is the boy of the never ending dessert tank. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept it’s a separate compartment in the stomach, usually exclusively found in children, reserved for desserts. S’s dessert tank is so great he boasts of eating a whole cheesecake over 2 days. At first he asked for a Vanilla Cheesecake but when I saw the recipe for an Apple Butterscotch cheesecake in Feast, I suggested it to him and he was nodding without a split second’s hesitation. Who says kids are hard to please? This cheesecake was more inspired by Feast as Nigella’s recipe did not call for any apple, rather apple schnapps which isn’t quite on the diet of your average 11 year old.
Open the hatch for the dessert tank…
When they arrived to pick up their bounty they buzzed our intercom and all I heard was an excited “We’re here to pick up the cheesecake!!”. And after grudgingly sharing a piece with his friend, S was in full dessert-tank filling mode. I gave him a giant serving fork to assist him in his endeavour and he settled in for a demolition job stopping only when mum M removed the giant fork from his hand to much protestations, after envisioning an 11 year old boy on a major sugar high all afternoon.
Nom nom…can fit more…
No mum, I can keep going! Just give me a second…
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Dolmades and fat green and black marinated olives
An invite to a food blogger’s birthday is going to be filled with great food. You just know that. It won’t be the kind of party where you’re served a bowl of soggy corn chips and a jar of salsa. A friend of mine went to a friend’s party and was served a bowl of rice and that was it. No sauce, no nothing to go with it.
Tetsuya’s oysters for the early birds-who us?
No, you can be fairly certain that there will be lots of good food involved. Suze and I were invited to fellow blogger’s Simon‘s from Simon Food Favourites 38th party this sunny, breezy Sunday afternoon. We made sure to arrive on time as he promised Oysters to the earlybirds (ok we’re not food sluts, ok yes maybe we are).
Spring roll tarts made with spring roll filling with a sweet chili sauce dressing
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One of the results of Christmas and New Year indulgences, is the inevitable tightening of the clothes. I used to seriously dream of having a drawer compartment in my stomach so I could keep on eating, and then when full, slide out the drawer and empty it and keep eating again. Since I am positive that won’t be happening in my lifetime, the next best thing and the rest of many a NY resolution is to eat more healthily. I debated about whether to put this salad up, after all it was just one of my every day lunches and didn’t seem fancy enough or blog worthy enough but the taste was so good, a sentiment repeated by my husband who also had some that I thought that I should.
I love anything that pops in my mouth: from the fattest caviar pearls to the humble corn kernel and Pomegranate seeds satisfy this pop lust of mine. One of the best things is that this salad is packed with antioxidants and good fats (from nuts and grapeseed oil) but it also looks beautiful with the rubied pomegranate seeds scattered throughout. You could of course use avocado and I toyed with the idea of adding some gorgeous Persian Feta but I thought that might tip it into the less healthy category (the feta, not the avocado although some may argue about that).
I’ll end off with an embarrassing story about myself. Just this morning, I put on some underwear, a novelty pair that I hadn’t worn in a while but I felt were appropriate for today. I found myself struggling to get them on. My heart was racing and I panicked – had I gained so much weight over Christmas and the New Year that even my underwear was refusing to go past my hips? After much groaning and struggling and hopping on the spot, I finally got them on but they were tight and didn’t fit so well. I pottered around the house for a good hour before realising that I had foolishly tried to squeeze my hips through one of the leg holes.
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I love recommendations from readers as I know that they’re just as passionate about food as I am and I am always one recommending food to others, usually because I want them to experience as good a meal as I had. One of my longtime readers, SydneyGal wholeheartedly recommended a visit to Zenya and when I told my husband about it, he was all too eager as ramen is one of his very favourite ever meals.
Unlimited cup of Tea $2.50
Walking inside you’d never guess from the outside that the interior is done so nicely, looking a bit like a bar rather (and it’s dark!) than a brightly lit ramen joint. And a good sign is the queue. There is a crowd of people waiting for a table and one puts down their name and the number of people and tears off the numbered slip and waits for their name to be called. We look at the menu while in line and about 5-10 minutes later we’re seated.
Phoenix Organic drinks $3 each
We’re dining with M and her sons S and In and we try a variety of things from the curious e.g the raw octopus with wasabi to the staples e.g. Teriyaki Beef as well as the bento boxes and ramen. For an extra $3 you can get a serve of 3 Gyoza and a side salad with the ramen and for an extra $5 you can get a mini bowl of ramen with your bento box. Everyone grabs drinks – they stock Phoenix Organic beverages in their very own Phoenix fridge ($3 each).
Tako Wasabi (Raw Octopus with wasabi) $4
The Tako Wasabi arrives first, in a small bowl with a slimy wasabi sauce. The boys refuse to touch it but my husband, M and I try it. It’s not bad although raw squid or octopus is not my favourite sashimi texture. The strong but not sinus clearing level of wasabi is not too bad and my husband finds it too chewy but M likes it very much indeed.
Beef Teriyaki Main size with rice and miso soup $14.80
It’s a little hard to know what side dishes go with what as they’re just placed on the table so we assign the side dishes to whoever we think they’re meant to go to. In is a firm carnivore (vegetables aren’t welcome in his family he says) and so beef teriyaki is chosen for him. It’s not a huge serve although it comes with rice and soup but he does a good job finishing it. It probably wouldn’t be enough for a very hungry person however.
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Now stay with me, please. This is not some bizarritey like Ham in Coca Cola (although have you tried it? It’s delicious). It’s a perfectly sweet cupcake, nothing pesto-like here at all, that just happens to have the pervasive taste and aroma of the most delectable nutty Browned Butter.
I’d cooked with Browned Butter ages ago but it had been over a year since I made something with it. It wasn’t until the Daring Bakers Caramel Cake that I fell in love with it again. And I fell fast. After the Daring Bakers cake, I made Ricotta Gnocchi in Browned Butter a couple of times and then wanted to make something sweet to go with it.
It wasn’t until a friend was coming around that I thought I’d take out the lovely Jasper Conran Chonoiserie setting that I have. I was devastated when I had bought a full 8 person setting of another pattern for our wedding only to find this range out. But if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I say that about so many China settings (other fetishes aside from food: Chanel nail polishes, lighting fixtures, cake stands and hats). In good news though, my shoe fetish has almost completely abated and it has been a good 6 months since I bought a pair. And I hardly ever get the urge to buy fur lined Zanotti heels any more…
Fur mules-impractical.
A much more practical shoe
I digress, back to the cupcakes. I tried to make these with a basil syrup at first but my impatience cost me. In an effort to speed up the cooling process for the basil syrup, I transferred it to another bowl where it magically crystallised. I was frightened-I had never had sugar crystallise on me before. One second it looked good and the next it was petrified as if a Dementor has swooped in and sucked the life out of it. So this time I ground some basil with some sugar to make a forest green basil sugar.
Basil sugar
The cake itself is gorgeous with a very crunchy exterior top much like a macaron, the soft but firm inside is deliciously nutty courtesy of the browned butter. And as for the icing, I used a restrained touch and didn’t use basil in the icing although if you’re a fan you certainly could.
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