Really weird looking restaurant. It was a stone brick motif on the wall, and neon outer space carpet on the ceiling?? It looked like it could have been a bowling alley in a past life.
Hot Stone Pot Bibimbap with mozzarella. I truly appreciate that Koreans like to add cheese to dishes that many other people would not try. But, and this really pains me to say (see blog tagline), the cheese in this case was not necessary.
I think my sister just fainted.
Bibimbap is good on its own! Although we’ve been making this a lot at home lately and I think I like my homemade version better. This one had too much rice for the amount of toppings.
1/2 Cave Salt wings, 1/2 Sweet Lava wings. Very crispy. Quite inconsistent sizing, some of them were huge and some were actually quite tiny.
Dutch Baby! These are so cool. I mean look at those ruffles! Look at that deliciousness! They are also super easy to make. I use this recipe. Dump everything in the blender while you heat the cast iron in the oven. Pour in the mixture, and bake for 15 minutes. Top with whatever you like.
Mi Goreng doughnut from Bistro Morgan. It was filled with chilli chocolate custard, and topped with Mi Goreng glaze, noodles and a sweet chilli drizzle. It was, understandably, weird. A spicy doughnut, lol. The other one was a New Yorker: cheesecake custard filling, passionfruit glaze, cheesecake biscuit crumb. This one was, understandably, normal.
Scott made pavlova for the first time and this is how it came out. O_O Not bad! I like pav. The chewy outside bits are the best.
Just a really delicious salad that I made that I wanted to show off. Perfectly cooked grilled salmon, avo, goat cheese, cucumber, cherry tomato, on rocket with a bit of balasamic vinegar. I could eat this salad over and over.
Homemade almond brittle ice cream in a store bought waffle cone. Actually not my best batch of ice cream, you can kind of see that it came out a bit grainy. This is the second time this has happened and I’m not sure exactly why. Scott thinks it might be because the almond brittle (or cookie dough in the other instance) started to dissolve in the ice cream? I have made some good batches lately though: passionfruit was a big hit.
The worlds most expensive bubble tea. Cheesy mango. Such a gross name, they really should specify that it’s cream cheese, haha. It actually was quite delicious, but man it cost a lot (like $8!!). Why do they use such fancy cups?
Soondubu jjiggae. This is one of my favourite Korean foods. I JUST LOVE SOFT TOFU SO MUCH. So I tried to make it myself at home with our trusty stone bowl! I used this recipe and it turned out fine, although I was hungry about 20 minutes later because it wasn’t much more than a bit of tofu and some water. Next time I will add some kind of seafood, and maybe serve it with a bowl of rice like they do in Korea.
We had a good March. Many activities. Yet didn’t get burnt out. Success.
Visitors! Jess and Michael came to visit, at different times. And Jonno, Scott’s friend from school who lives in Scotland, came to visit. We met up with him on the floating bar Arbory. I took no people pictures, whoops.
Weightlifting! It feels like ages ago now, but I had a pretty good comp last month. It was at a new location with my new coach, which added a little extra stress, but it went well. I snatched 38 kg, 41 kg (equal PB) and then nearly nearly snatched 43 kg. I did all the hard part! Got under it, and even stood half way up but then dropped it behind me. Bummer, that would have been an excellent PB. Then I clean and jerked 48 kg, 51 kg (2 kg PB), but couldn’t even clean 53 kg. Ah well. 2 kg PB C&J and total is good.
I don’t have another comp for a while. That’s ok. I’m on week 3 of 4 of a new training block right now and it’s going so well! I think I’m actually getting stronger!
Bouldering! I channeled my inner-Rosemarie and joined my coworkers for a climb. It’s been ages since I last went. Was fun. I think I would like to do this more often.
Gains! From Sundae School Ice Creamery. I had mango lassi. It 100% tasted like mango lassi. Scott had raspberry rhubarb sorbet.
Crafts! I finally finished test stitching a new cross stitch pattern: I Love Board Games. I had a lot of fun designing and stitching this pattern. I tried to squeeze in all of my favourite games, like Azul, 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, and plenty more. Recognize any obscure ones?
Footy! It’s back!! My Melbourne Demons are doing real bad. They appear to have forgotten how to catch the ball. Or kick to another person. Or do anything. Scott’s Brisbane Lions are doing great! We went to a game last week and Scott finally got to hear them play the victory song for the first time in ages.
Smokey Eggplant and Vietnamese Salt and Pepper Squid. The eggplant was super smooth and sticky and yummy. The squid was nice and tender.
Crispy Fried Soft Shell Crab with papaya salad and prawn crackers. My first soft shell crab! I liked it! Makes you feel like a real apex predator when you’re biting right through a crab. I didn’t like the papaya salad as much as I usually like Thai papaya salad. It didn’t have very much sauce, and I’m not sure it actually had any papaya? It seemed like it was mostly made out of apple or pear.
This place has been on my To Eat list for a long time but they don’t take reservations and always have lines. We went around 6PM on Australia Day and waited about 15 minutes for a table, which is better than usual I think. They have a bar area at the back where you can start drinking while you wait.
Salmon Nori Taco (grilled salmon belly, sushi rice, spicy napa cabbage, Japanese mayo, chilli oil) and a Sanchez Does Kyoto Japanese marg (tequila, yuzu, agave)
They are most famous for this taco. And it was actually really good. The deep fried nori makes a surprisingly good taco shell. The whole thing was pretty hefty with tons of great flavour and texture. I would definitely like to have another one sometime. I love salmon so much.
Tofu Bao (beetroot bao, tempura tofu, carrot remoulade, creamy spicy sauce, picked coriander). A nice fluffy soft bao with tasty crunchy fillings.
Pork Belly Pancake (48-hour miso glazed pork belly, sesame slaw). Sorry for terrible photo. It was different than what I expected and I forgot to take a picture until after I’d already ripped it in half to share with Scott. I don’t recommend trying to share this one.
The pork belly tasted kind of like peking duck. Delicious. Too small.
Scott enjoyed it.
House Hand Roll. Can’t remember what this had in it, but it was yummy and well made.
David Chang’s Ramen Gnocchi (wagyu bolognese, ramen potato gnocchi, salted buffalo ricotta). This was the one dish we were disappointed with. It was just so boring and soft. This dish definitely need a crunch element. It was just soft gnocchi with rich bolognese that had no defining texture, covered in soft cheese. It was also overly salty.
Pumpkin Toast (white chocolate and pumpkin ganache, honeycomb, yoghurt sorbet, spiced pumpkin ice cream). I don’t know why they call this “toast”. It was more like a blondie. Every part of this dessert was delicious. It was fun to try various elements together in different combinations. i loved the ganaches especially.
