~ Curious Charlie ~

Three Cooking Adventures @ Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Monday 6th February

It smells funny and the floor is dirty in here. I don't like this place. I wished no.7 aka the girl next door was here, she knows what she's doing. I wish I had worn boots. There were a few people we saw, the undesirables of society. But we did it, ventured into asian town. Sure the produce is cheaper but to me it's c-d grade. I've seen A grade, and I don't know where it actually comes from.. it's not the supermarket. Once I did a high profile event with ministers being on the guest list, they had the best fruit/veg I've ever seen, well comparable to a shop in Ripponlea which is quite expensive.

We shopped around for a few things on Victoria St and these were the cheapest prices we found, and where:

3.80 Sweet chili sauce at the 'Richmond Grocery Store' next to Bread Top. Jas loves this stuff, it's the only actually chili, sweet chili sauce we've ever had! One the store we went to also has a small 'I live alone' bottle, though I didn't note which store.It's the Pantai brand, which we had at a Thai place (with delicious green coconut curry!).

3.00 Palm sugar syrup at 'Asian Groceries' 164 Victoria st next to Thanh Nga Restaurant. We're making three layer iced tea! The recipe calls for palm sugar which comes in a solid block, but we're cheating with the liquid version, which isn't at Coles.

$3 Dessert Soups from Huong Huong Cake Shop. Next to stop 20 on the left. The side going up to the city, a stop away from north Richmond station. I love these dessert soups (that's what google translate calls them) though I'm really not sure how long ago they were made... as they were dusty... naturally the shop keeper says fresh today but I don't trust asians... (in terms of immigrant shop keepers). There are food safety rules that don't seem to apply to them...

How was it? Savory without the coconut milk which was sweet and oh so cool and creamy. Not enough corn though so I wouldn't get it again. Also it was freezer corn. For it to qualify to use the word corn in the title I believe it needs to be, the main/mostly contained ingredient to be corn.

Lunch at Il Mio Pasta Cafe, nope. Sofia in the city is our one line summary.

Tuesday

Tonight we went to an Illustration Workshop, Happy Houseplants. Hosted by Hannah Tyrell Designs at Soda Communications. We went through techniques, using fine liners, different pressures and tips on mix and matching plants, pots and designs. It was very relaxing (surprisingly even for me, as a maths person) and even I managed to draw a few decent ones. :P Hannah was great, very friendly and kept a good pace. Also with illustration workshops she also does watercolor ones!

Experimenting with Aldi's Stonemill Vanilla Extract, it's very liquidy - water like!

Back in the kitchen we made inadequate pb choc chip cookies, experimented with a mini cupcake pan but the top was cookie like while the bottom was wet so we had to flip them up-side-down. Our one day goals include making choc chip cookie cups!

*no pictures were taken*

Dinner was a light salmon pasta, for a family of four... whoops. With a EV olive oil drizzle/based "sauce" it was very different from my usual tomato base. Would I make it again? Maybe. It was a very easy recipe though.

Wednesday

The best meetings involve cake! And this month's meet featured cupcakes from Cupcake Queens, a place we've recently heard about expanding now with six stores across Melbourne, with the South Melbourne being the newest location.

Fortunately within the team there's only one special person, and not a vegan, a gluten/dairy/sugar-free combo and so we ordered mostly normal ones along with dairy free. As a baker my basic ingredients are sugar and butter, and so I have never attempted dairy free cupcakes, though I'd imagine they involve apple sauce.

We shared a couple cupcakes:
Dairy free banana - Quite good for something that's dairy free, though denser than a cupcake leaning towards banana bread, it was still nice and moist the day after.
Dairy free choc - I didn't like this one, as it was dense - though not dry.

Red velvet - Omg glitter!! With cream cheese frosting this one's a favorite! Quite fluffy, though not as much as cupcake central and little cupcakes. If I was close by and needed a cupcake I'd stop by!

A lovely evening at the bowl for a free MSO concert. I didn't finish the hat in time, but it'll be ready for the Saturday concert! We arrived a bit after 7pm, and it was fully packed though not sold out. Lines didn't stop till 8pm, so we sat back and watched the trail of ants. Got in during interval, and oh boy it was crowded!

We simply had to go for Sleeping Beauty is my favorite ballet; followed by nutcracker and swan lake (though I have yet to see swan lake ). Paired with 1812 overture it was awesome! No actual canons though, just recordings. It was a hot summer's night, would I go again? Sure, but I'd sit far from the crowd on the side.

Friday

On Fridays we bake! And this time I let her pick the recipe. An Orange cake, a loaf cake that didn't rise evenly... we also forgot the poppy seeds and the frosting (cream cheese) was so runny it was more like a glaze. Next time we'll make it with the carrot cake frosting. Served warm it was beautiful, though still missing that poppy seed texture.

Coming up soon... our review on the Organic Butler Box... and...

Cupcakes Delivered!

Saturday

Butternut Pumpkin Pasta! It's almost vegan and quite interesting.

Only when you're running late does all trains are replaced by buses. I missed three in a row. It saw me coming. Costs $50 to uber there. Three things away. Train train tram or tram bus tram. Fuuuccckkk. It is not my day. This is also why I don't think concert picnics. Life is stressful.

Two hours and six trams later I made it! For the last 15mins of the concert... Never again will we voluntarily travel when there are no trains. The planner said it was three trams away, though actually happened was, I took the tram in the wrong direction or ran to the train, hence missing the tram and then vice versa.

Instead of a picnic in the park, it was a picnic in the playground surrounded by screaming little shits (one in particular, like he was just standing there, screaming). The plums and nectarines were good.

Sunday

The Great Local Lunch. Vegetarian, vibrant and veggielicious! Great food, interesting company and one girl who was a bit of a vulture and refused to wait for me to take pictures, she also took my glass! But it's all about the food and not company. :P