The very existence of this blog is evidence that I take enormous pleasure in food. Perhaps using food as a form of distraction during the more monotonous times in life isn't the most healthy relationship one can have with food, but I do not believe it to be pathological either. After all, the notion of "soul food" had to have come from somewhere. I feel blessed to have the means to satiate my physiological hunger with the beautiful, fresh produce of this country, and fulfil some of my spiritual and emotional needs with the sheer number of unexplored avenues in food: eating it, preparing it, reading up on it, etc.
The 2012 Food Bloggers' Picnic: exemplifying the pivotal role in maintaining a sense of community, and facilitating the social-networking process.
I consider myself to be a person of very simple taste when it comes to food. I don't like having too many different things on my plate, and my poor brain easily gets overwhelmed by too many different flavours and textures administered all at the same time. A hunk of roast beef suffices for dinner, and I find nothing more satisfying than a few squares of dark chocolate for dessert. Therefore, what I'm about to list down as my recent "interesting eats" may not be at all that interesting for most people who read this. Especially for my fellow food bloggers, whose tasting experiences far exceed my own!
The above is a cheeseboard I assembled for a casual dinner party with a few close friends. It wasn't anything special - the cheeses themselves were of the, ahem, supermarket variety. I guess I was inordinately proud of it for that very reason. Here's proof that luxury can be had on a modest budget :D From the top left hand corner we have: white figs, blue cheese, red leicester with walnuts, black seedless grapes, edam, a piece of honeycomb, cream cheese with chives, salt-cured pork charcuterie, dried figs and medjool dates, and some crackers/crispbreads I baked myself using almond flour and chickpea flour.
I assembled the plate above at farewell luncheon we threw for a friend who was due to head off to the United States. I contributed the quiche, while one of my other friends made the dainty wraps and the avocado salad. Although the food was delicious, it was really the people there who made it special. The five of us who were there have been the best of friends since the beginning of high school, and I couldn't have imagined a better way to send our 'sister' off to her new home for the next few years than spending the afternoon chatting away on the verandah, under the warmth of the Australian sun.
One of the perks of having friends who are as interested in food as you are is that you always eat well at social gatherings. The farewell luncheon was but one example of the superb spreads we would have at such events. The white chocolate and berries cheesecake, looking as gorgeous here in the photograph as it did in real life, featured at a tea party at a friend's house. No need to fork out a load of cash for finger sandwiches at a swanky tea room! We sure had ourselves a proper feast that day. Gorging ourselves on chicken schnitzel sandwiches and cold roast beef didn't stop us from going back for seconds of this no-bake cheesecake. The fact that it tasted light as air only helped with our self-deception that we totally didn't just undo a week's worth of cardio with this bad-ass diet-breaker.
WHAT IS THIS?! you ask. Talkin' about diet-breakers...during one of my more desperate (and shameful) moments in the midst of preparing for exams, I said "stuff it!" to the low-carb eating plan I was following at the time and made myself a kaya toast sandwich. Two pieces of fluffy white sandwich bread, toasted to the point of charring, then slathered with kaya (coconut jam) and covered with thick slabs of cold butter. I didn't skimp on the butter, as you can witness yourselves in the cross-section shot:
I ate it at 3am in the morning, my eyes swollen half-shut from lack of sleep and my head filled with images of bones, blood vessels, and miscellaneous body parts (I was studying anatomy; just thought I should qualify that statement). This tasted so good, and I was so tired I was past caring about nutrition. The diet could wait until after the exams, my sugar-numbed mind said.
And now - a change of pace. I try to eat healthy most of the time, and avocadoes are so good for you. Yes, they're calorically-dense, but having one of these for a snack is better than a sugar-laden muesli bar, or a tub of low-calorie yoghurt stuffed to the gills with artificial sweeteners and thickening agents. Such was my love for the avocado that I went to great lengths to procure a perfect specimen of each cultivar (which are commonly sold in Sydney) just so I could do a blog entry on it. The entry is still in the works, but the avocadoes themselves have long been eaten. From the left, we have the 'Shepard', the 'Reed' and the well-known 'Hass'. A few spoonfuls into the 'Shepard', I was greeted by the sight of a love heart. How apt. Can you spot it?
The avocado saga continues! Not content with simply eating them, I am in the process of germinating some of the avocado seeds I've kept. I'm pleased to report that at least two of them are showing signs of sprouting!
I stumbled upon some organic purple carrots while browsing Maloneys Grocer. Purple food excites me. The carrots were less sweet than the orange variety, and tasted more...watery? I don't know how else to describe it. I think I prefer the normal orange ones, but I did enjoy the novelty factor (and having my teeth stained purple for the rest of the day).
Going with the theme of purple vegetables - I bought some purple congo potatoes at the Sydney Produce Market at Flemington. There were also many other uncommon varieties being sold there.
Just a few more pictures. Wow, this is getting to be a long post.
I made this black sesame ice cream in the Cuisinart ice cream machine I got for my birthday, following the success of the vanilla bean ice cream. I must have dumped a quarter of a bag of ground black sesame in there to get that shade of grey. Which was fine, because I like my black sesame ice cream to taste strongly of black sesame. Recipe to come!
I call these retro flower cupcakes, because they look like something right out of a vintage issue of Women's Weekly. The frosting is a cream cheese one. I used chocolate freckles and Smarties for the flowers themselves.
Here's the flourless chocolate cake I baked for Valentine's Day...for a female friend and her family. Yeah, no one's snagged me up yet. Gentlemen, send in your applications and I'll make a short-list xP To make it extra-special, I sprinkled it with silver edible glitter, and love heart-shaped confetti. Nauseating, ain't it?
And finally - posing with the king crab that formed the centrepiece dish of our Chinese New Year celebration dinner. I debated for a long time whether or not to share this photo, as I do realise that some may be offended. However, I think that those of us who are omnivorous should acknowledge that our food were once living organisms. This king crab was a magnificent creature, and I enjoyed every single bite of its sweet flesh.
Yeah, I think that's it for now!
The above is a cheeseboard I assembled for a casual dinner party with a few close friends. It wasn't anything special - the cheeses themselves were of the, ahem, supermarket variety. I guess I was inordinately proud of it for that very reason. Here's proof that luxury can be had on a modest budget :D From the top left hand corner we have: white figs, blue cheese, red leicester with walnuts, black seedless grapes, edam, a piece of honeycomb, cream cheese with chives, salt-cured pork charcuterie, dried figs and medjool dates, and some crackers/crispbreads I baked myself using almond flour and chickpea flour.
I assembled the plate above at farewell luncheon we threw for a friend who was due to head off to the United States. I contributed the quiche, while one of my other friends made the dainty wraps and the avocado salad. Although the food was delicious, it was really the people there who made it special. The five of us who were there have been the best of friends since the beginning of high school, and I couldn't have imagined a better way to send our 'sister' off to her new home for the next few years than spending the afternoon chatting away on the verandah, under the warmth of the Australian sun.
One of the perks of having friends who are as interested in food as you are is that you always eat well at social gatherings. The farewell luncheon was but one example of the superb spreads we would have at such events. The white chocolate and berries cheesecake, looking as gorgeous here in the photograph as it did in real life, featured at a tea party at a friend's house. No need to fork out a load of cash for finger sandwiches at a swanky tea room! We sure had ourselves a proper feast that day. Gorging ourselves on chicken schnitzel sandwiches and cold roast beef didn't stop us from going back for seconds of this no-bake cheesecake. The fact that it tasted light as air only helped with our self-deception that we totally didn't just undo a week's worth of cardio with this bad-ass diet-breaker.
WHAT IS THIS?! you ask. Talkin' about diet-breakers...during one of my more desperate (and shameful) moments in the midst of preparing for exams, I said "stuff it!" to the low-carb eating plan I was following at the time and made myself a kaya toast sandwich. Two pieces of fluffy white sandwich bread, toasted to the point of charring, then slathered with kaya (coconut jam) and covered with thick slabs of cold butter. I didn't skimp on the butter, as you can witness yourselves in the cross-section shot:
I ate it at 3am in the morning, my eyes swollen half-shut from lack of sleep and my head filled with images of bones, blood vessels, and miscellaneous body parts (I was studying anatomy; just thought I should qualify that statement). This tasted so good, and I was so tired I was past caring about nutrition. The diet could wait until after the exams, my sugar-numbed mind said.
And now - a change of pace. I try to eat healthy most of the time, and avocadoes are so good for you. Yes, they're calorically-dense, but having one of these for a snack is better than a sugar-laden muesli bar, or a tub of low-calorie yoghurt stuffed to the gills with artificial sweeteners and thickening agents. Such was my love for the avocado that I went to great lengths to procure a perfect specimen of each cultivar (which are commonly sold in Sydney) just so I could do a blog entry on it. The entry is still in the works, but the avocadoes themselves have long been eaten. From the left, we have the 'Shepard', the 'Reed' and the well-known 'Hass'. A few spoonfuls into the 'Shepard', I was greeted by the sight of a love heart. How apt. Can you spot it?
The avocado saga continues! Not content with simply eating them, I am in the process of germinating some of the avocado seeds I've kept. I'm pleased to report that at least two of them are showing signs of sprouting!
I stumbled upon some organic purple carrots while browsing Maloneys Grocer. Purple food excites me. The carrots were less sweet than the orange variety, and tasted more...watery? I don't know how else to describe it. I think I prefer the normal orange ones, but I did enjoy the novelty factor (and having my teeth stained purple for the rest of the day).
Going with the theme of purple vegetables - I bought some purple congo potatoes at the Sydney Produce Market at Flemington. There were also many other uncommon varieties being sold there.
Just a few more pictures. Wow, this is getting to be a long post.
I made this black sesame ice cream in the Cuisinart ice cream machine I got for my birthday, following the success of the vanilla bean ice cream. I must have dumped a quarter of a bag of ground black sesame in there to get that shade of grey. Which was fine, because I like my black sesame ice cream to taste strongly of black sesame. Recipe to come!
I call these retro flower cupcakes, because they look like something right out of a vintage issue of Women's Weekly. The frosting is a cream cheese one. I used chocolate freckles and Smarties for the flowers themselves.
Here's the flourless chocolate cake I baked for Valentine's Day...for a female friend and her family. Yeah, no one's snagged me up yet. Gentlemen, send in your applications and I'll make a short-list xP To make it extra-special, I sprinkled it with silver edible glitter, and love heart-shaped confetti. Nauseating, ain't it?
And finally - posing with the king crab that formed the centrepiece dish of our Chinese New Year celebration dinner. I debated for a long time whether or not to share this photo, as I do realise that some may be offended. However, I think that those of us who are omnivorous should acknowledge that our food were once living organisms. This king crab was a magnificent creature, and I enjoyed every single bite of its sweet flesh.
Yeah, I think that's it for now!
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