So it seems like May is the month for lovely awards from fellow food bloggers. Give me a second while I assemble my tiara (yes I have three), a sash and a sceptre (will a roll of foil do for this?).
I received two E for Excellent Awards from two great bloggers, from the lovely Claire from Melbourne Gastronome and the fabulous Sinead from Airy Fairy cupcakes. Thankyou ladies, it’s truly an honour! I need to pass two of them on so I shall pass on the E for Excellent award to: Maria from Foodie Wanderings. I love her honesty and humour and she has become a great blogging friend. The second one, and not because she gave me an Arte Y Pico award, Y from LemonPi because she bakes like a demon!
In addition to those two awards, I received an Arte y Pico award from my fellow Sydney food lover Y from Lemonpi.
The rules behind this award are as follows:
1. Pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the award have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Award winner must show these rules.
So the five other blogs I’d like to give this Arte Y Pico award to are, Grace from A Southern Grace, Patricia from Technicolour Kitchen, Sinead from Airy Fairy Cupcakes, Belle from Minty PetitPois and Kim from A Yankee in a Southern Kitchen. All for inspiring me in various ways through their gorgeous recipes, food styling and humour.
Love,
NQN
xxx
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May 29, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
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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May 28, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
My husband, gamely and somewhat foolishly perhaps, offered to make me a birthday cake when his family came over for my birthday. This Wilton giant cupcake pan was a gift from my parents. Although I am obsessed with miniatures, I am also fascinated by giant versions of things and this Wilton cake pan was on my radar from the moment I saw it.
I’ve tried caramel and salt before, indeed I made a salted caramel macadamia praline and it was a success so I wanted a caramel and salt cake. Unfortunately, despite buttering and flouring the pan well, the cake was steadfastly stuck in the pan. He did a great job cutting it out but the ridge detail was lost. The icing was a tad runny for the cake and even refrigerating it did not help a lot. He did enjoy doing the chocolate fondant, I told him it was like a “construction job”! I’m hoping he’ll go for cooking rather than pining for a backyard and back shed.
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May 27, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
“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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May 26, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
I love Weddings. It has been 2 years since our wedding and one of the many, many traditions is the Bouquet Toss. Since most of my guests were already already married or older or simply not interested in catching a bouquet (too close to sport) I didn’t think do a Bouquet toss. This beautiful citrus scented cake is an alternative to a Bouquet toss to be served at a Kitchen Tea.
The idea is simple, attach 1 piece of ribbon to the centre bouquet with the rest of the lengths of ribbon unattached. Whoever picks the ribbon attached to the bouquet “Catches the Bouquet”! No clawing or scratching at others or people falling over to catch the elusive bouquet and no boobs falling out of dresses (I’ve seen pics where women jump up to catch the bouquet and their dress doesn’t follow). You can also attach “wishes” or a prize to the ends of the ribbon or even names depending on the age and interest of your guests.
I’m one of those odd people that don’t like fresh oranges cut up (I always bypass the orange pieces served for dessert at Chinese restaurants) but I do love orange in things, especially orange rind. I could’ve, or should have, dusted it with icing sugar but I only thought of that once it was served and cut. You could certainly match the central bouquet with the brides bouquet and ribbon according to the colour theme of the wedding. Yes lads, that’s right, there probably was a colour theme to your wedding, you just didn’t know it 
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May 25, 2008
by Not Quite Nigella
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