Food food food!

I've been neglecting the culinary side of me lately. So on Saturday (after my near death experiece which I will not discuss about because I worry for the safety of my life), I went to Flemington Paddy's Markets with my parents. Its been awhile since we've been because we keep stocking up and we never finish the food on time. Since it was pouring rain, we were hoping that it would be less crowded. Well we were wrong. Anyway, we did get quite a few good buys:

Mini pineapples - 3 for $2

These pineapples were so cute! They're no bigger than those novelty footballs/stressball things they sell for charity. And its soooooooo sweet! And cute! Did I mention they were cute?

Yellow capsicums - $2/kg

Chinese Radish - $1 a bunch

For some reason, my dad was really happy to see these split chinese radishes. He reckons they taste better than the normal ones. We have yet to cook them so I don't know if its true or not. Only taste will tell......

Pearl Mushrooms and abalone mushrooms - $6 for 2 packs

Fresh babycorn

The marked price is $5 a box, each box comes with 16 little trays. I thought it was a great deal, but what I think and what my mum think is quite different. Even at $5, she likes to bargain (Now you know where I get it from). She offered the guy $4 for the box, the gave a bark of laughter into her face, waved her away, turned his back and grabbed a box lying at the back of his stand. He lifted the lid and showed us that there was 1 1/2 trays missing from the box, threw it ontop of another box and said $5. I thought he said he'll sell the incomplete box to us for $4, but he was offering us the incomplete box and ANOTHER full box for $5! Thats $2.50 a box with 16 little trays! Talk about a bargain! And I thought the guy was going to tell us off for offering him $4. I guess it never hurts to ask hey?

I picked up a few other ingredients along the way for a bit of a cookoff by myself:

Chicken Sausage rolls

MmmMmm more innards....

MMmmmMmm They were YUM!!! The sausages were just cooked to perfection, still nice and juicy and the pastry was soft and flakey. Served with a bit of tomato/chilli chutney it'll be perfect! If I wasn't so hungry, I probably would've whipped up a batch. Maybe next time. Until then, good old ketchup will do.

Mix mushroom and salami pasta

Tom Yum Noodle Soup

This was my first attempt at Tom Yum Goong and I've bastardised it already. I grabbed a nice bunch of Kaffir lime leaves whilst I was at the markets and thought I should put it too good use since its $6/100g ($60/kg!!!!!!!!!!!!) We had alot of leftover mussels so I thought I'd throw that in. And since we have so much baby corn, I thought I'd throw some in to. But I think the one thing that everyone is screaming about is "OMG!! YOU CAN'T PUT TOMATO IN A TOM YUM GOONG!!! BLASPHEMY!!!". Well, I did. And some restaurants serve them that way as well. But next time I think I'll leave them out, and the corn, and the mussels and produce a pure Tom Yum Goong. It turned out quite well even though I was missing 1 key ingredient and had to substitute, and I also ran outta lime. I need alot more lime. I loveeeeeee my Tom Yum Goong soooo sour your saliva glands go into overtime! MmmMmm YUM!!

I've also been categorising all the recipes I've collected over time, and found one that Moishii sent me on 23rd November 2004 (Yes I've kept the email!) on how to make dolmades (Vine leaves). Moishii's mum makes THE BEST VINE LEAVE EVER! And so I had asked for the recipe and he emailed it to me. So I went out and got myself a pack of vine leaves which had been preserved since I couldn't find any fresh ones. Obviously my first question was how do I treat the preserved ones compared to the fresh ones. I gave Moishii a call who managed to get him mummy on the other end. Then there was this whole big translation session. Everything was going well until I said ".....and then I'll fry it all up....."

Moishii: "Fry what?? What are you frying?? Theres no frying!!"
Oishii: "Your recipe said to fry up the onions and the garlic......."
M: "Theres no garlic!!!"
O: "YOUR EMAIL SAYS GARLIC!!!"
M: "THERES NO GARLIC!!! Read me the recipe!"
O: "500g of cooked rice......holy crap thats 1/2kg of cooked rice!!"
M:" WHY ARE YOU USING COOKED RICE!!! YOU DON'T USE COOKED RICE!!!!!!"
O: "YOUR RECIPE SAYS TO USE COOKED RICE!!! It also says parsley....."
M: "THERE'S NO PARSLEY!!! DON'T USE PARSLEY!!!"

And this went on and on with all the ingredients he listed. I finally got an updated ingredients list from his mummy. He basically gave me a crap recipe which was completely fake! Half of the ingredients he sent me I don't need! Most of the instructions it gives are completely wrong! Who the hell gives me a fake recipe!! And even when he did give me his mum's recipe, I suspected there was something wrong with it. Either he's a bad translater (Which is entirely possible) or his mum was withholding a key ingredient, just like in Everybody loves Raymond. But I come from a long generation of cooks, and I can wing it if I need to.

I call this "Dolmades - Moishii's Mum's Style, as interpreted by SoRMuiJAi". So here goes:

The filling - This is what caused the whole fuss!

Preparing for the rolling

Looking good so far.....

My first completed vine leaf!

One down.....

Only 12754 more to go......

Moishii neglected to give me a few vital points, such as how long to cook them for!!!!!! Anyway, I winged it, and it tasted good!!! It's been 24hours, and there is no sign of food poisoning! The rice was a bit too cooked (No thanks to some people), and its not quite tomatoey enough. The reason Moishii's Mum makes the best Dolmades ever, is because she makes it really tomatoey, unlike all the others out there. I know where I went wrong, and I am definately going to make another batch soon. I've passed a box on to Moishii, so he can pass it on to his Mummy. Lets see what she thinks hey? I think its a good effort for a first attempt! Hmmmm I'm so having a Turkish cookout soon! I'm going to make some Kofte!!

Comfort food

Its rainy, its windy and its cold. So what does a girl cook when she's hungry, tired and cold? Something comforting and easy to make with minimal effort? Bangers and Mash.

MmMmm....innards

And just to make it sound posh, its Continental sausages on a bed of Garlic mash served with a side of sugar snap peas and a caramelised onion gravy.

Spice I am revisited

Its been a good few weeks since our first visit to Spice I am. I think it's taken that long for the burning to go away and the sensation return to my tastebuds. So I do what any sane person does, go back for a second helping.

After learning from our first experience, we decided to head to the Triple Ace Bar for a few drinks beforehand. Once we were sufficiently liquored up, we stumbled over to Spice I am only to find the place packed to the seams. I left my mobile number with the friendly waitress, stumbled back across the road for another drink. Less than 5mins later, my Oompa-Loompa ringtone goes off, before I could even say "Hello" Cookiez had already started sculling her drinking. I quickly down mine, grabbed my bags and attempted the inebriated high heels tottle across the street.


We're promptly seated (Thank goodness because I think I was walking slanted) with plates, cutlery and a big bottle of water was plonked down for our using. We decided to try some new dishes:

Mieng Kuay Teow - $6.90
Sliced Pork, bean sprouts, mint, wrapped with flat rice noodles

For entree, we opted for the Mieng Kuay Teow which consists of pork, bean sprouts, mints all rolled in fresh sheets of rice noodles. It comes with a VERY garlicky and sour sauce. The roll on its own is quite bland and it really needs the sauce to jazz it up. The crunchy bean sprouts and the soft silky rice noodles offers a refreshing contrast. Maybe because I am expecting a Yum Cha style cheong fun with soft innards, instead I was greeted by a cool refreshing crunch of sprouts. The dish is nice, but not worth the $6.90. Not if I can get a plate with 3 strips of Cheong Fun for under $5 at Yum Cha.

Nam Tok - $10.90
Chargrilled Beef salad hot and spicy with chilli powder and ground roast rice

You would think after last time's salad I would learn my lesson......well, you see, I'm a slow learner. I KNOW I should've asked for mild.......but.......well......I don't know. I didn't. So I suffered. I was just grateful that I was semi tanked up before arriving and had partially numbed my tongue before eating. I'm pretty sure the salad was nice and sour. I love my salads sour. The tang lightens up any meal and enables me to consume more. However, I spent most of the time focusing on the burn. I was a tad confused after the 2nd bite and though someone had shoved a red hot poker into my mouth. MILD DAMNIT!! Why did I forget that keyword when I was ordering! *Sigh* The salad was still good, although I still prefer their Nam Khao Tod if it didn't burn my tongue off. I stharted thu sthpeak thlike thith half way thruuu the dith cos my thongue wath sthwollen.

Basil Crispy Chicken - $13.90

This was the dish of the night. The Chicken wasn't exactly CRISPY, but it was deep fried and then cooked in a slight sweet, slighty spicy and slightly salt sticky sauce all topped with crunchy fried holy basil. The spiciness on this dish did not hit a 35 on a scale of 10, meaning I could enjoy this dish without a fire extinguisher. The serving was a bit small for the price we paid, but it made it all the more more-ish. I must try this dish again when I'm sober and have complete use of my taste buds, but I'm afraid it might be a bit salty considering it tasted sufficiently salted even with my numb tongue. Nevertheless, it was yummmmmmmmm!

Spice I am
90 Wentworth Ave
Surry Hills
http://www.spiceiam.com

Greek Islands Anniversary

So we had our anniversary dinner tonight. We thought since we're not going to be overseas doing our Turkey and Greece thing, we're gonna go to Greek and Turkish restaurants to make up for it. Originally we had planned to go to Santorini, the restaurant on Oxford St on our Santorini anniversary and Mykonos on Crown on our Mykonos anniversary. But Mykonos on Crown is one of the shittiest restaurants we have ever been to, and around the same time, all these reviews for Greek Restaurants popped up on SMH. One of which, was Greek Islands Taverna at Earlwood. (360 Homer st)

We thought this would be perfect, it'll cover our Rhodes, Santorini and Mykonos Anniversary. So we rocked up tonight only to be greeted at the door by 2 asian waitresses. First thought in my mind was "Oh my god its an asian run greek joint!!". Luckily a quick look around showed that this isn't one of those dodgy joints. So we squeeze into our table, which was unfortunately against the wall meaning once we were seated, we were trapped for the whole night.

We were handed the menus and quickly started arguing about what we were going to order. We finally decided to go with more Mezes and just one main whilst reserving some room for dessert. Now I didn't get many photos because one, I was hungry, and secondly, it was too dark to take any decent photos without blinding half of the people sitting around me.

We started with a generous serving of taramosalata, which is a blended red caviar dip. It was slightly smokey and slightly salty and heaps oh-yummy! I wish I hadn't ordered this to be honest, I couldn't stop eating it and ended up eating a whole breadroll before all the food came out! Which was such a shame because their Spanakaopites (Spinch and cheese pies) were delicious! I was a bit apprehensive when ordering this because of my bad experience with cheese anything in Greece.

But these were completely different. Instead of salty cheese wrapped in oily filo pastry and then deep fried, the "pie" looked like little fried dumplings. The pastry was cripsy and light, and the filling was a perfect balance of spinach and soft creamy cheese without being overly salted. I could eat half a dozen of these things without getting sick.

We also ordered a serve of their BBQ octopus. Ever since the first meal I had in Santorini last year, I've fallen in love with all Greek seafood. I was hoping for a repeat of the gorgeous meal we had but I was quite disappointed. Maybe it was because we weren't actually at Santorini, a stones throw away from a volcano seated on the edge of a cliff, or maybe it was just because the BBQ Octopus was quite dry and burnt. I know they described it as Chargrilled, but I would classify parts of it burnt. They also forgot to give us a wedge of lemon to lighten the dish up. I wish I had ordered their lightly floured and panfried calamari or white bait, maybe next time.

Of course, no greek anniversary dinner will be complete without the compulsory Greek Salad. I never liked greek salads until I actually went to Greece. The problem with most greek salads in Australia is that they use a dry hard fetta cheese that is either overly bland or overly salty. Luckily, the fetta they used were soft and creamy and oh so drool worthy! It was almost as good as the ones we had in Greece. ALMOST. For a moment there I actually thought we were back in Greece. Maybe that was the 1/2L of wine we were consuming.

After stuffing my face with all the meze, our lamb finally came out. After our last trip, one of my favourite lamb dishes is the Greek Lamb Casserole with Kritharaki (Little pasta).

The lamb was served in a mini clay pot. It was a bit dry and less saucy than the one I had at Mykonos, but the lamb was meltingly tender until it was falling off the bone and the pasta was a bit softer than al dente, but I think it was perfect that way. Infact, I liked the pasta much more than the lamb itself and proceeded to consume copious amounts of kritharaki until I was about to explode.

We decided to have a rest before hitting the dessert, but that didn't last long. Not long after our table was cleared, we ordered our mandatory Galaktoboureko, which is basically like a custard filled filo pastry that is drenched in rosewater sugar syrup. I actually haven't made this in ages and it was good to be able to consume it without custard exploding in my face. The pastry was light and not too sweet, and the firm cold custard was nice and refreshing. Of course we washed this down with greek coffee. Double for me.

So its about 10pm by the time we leave the restaurant. Just like last time, we felt it was too early to go home. So we hop into the car and start driving randomly. We ended up following a car for about 10mins without a clue as to where we were going. We somehow ended up at Redfern and started doings lap around the city. Now let me explain our last outing. It was 10pm at night and we were driving to Crows Nest and on the radio, Nutbush started playing. We cranked up the stereo and winded down the window letting the music blare out of the windows. This is when I start having a laughing fit about how most people will be blaring Techno or RnB out of their subwoofers, and we're blaring Nutbush! So what did I do? I made a complilation of the cheesiest 80s music including Nutbush, Walk like an Egyptian, Hey Mickey etc.

So here we were, driving around the city blaring Nutbush out of the car, we decided to do a lap around Leichardt and stop outside Mythos so we can pump Nutbush out of the car. After a good 20mins of driving around making a racket, we headed off to Haberfield for coffee. Neither of us could actually put anything into our mouths without being sick, but somehow, we ended up getting a coffee each and a ricotta canoli to share. We pick at the canoli and slowly sip the coffee wasting time hoping for the hour hand to get to midnight soon. We were both tired and started yawning despite the coffee.

We sit there watching the waiters pack up for the night to pass the time. All of a sudden, I see Moishii's face change and he started going "Oh my god...oh my GOD oh my god!". I slowly turn my head to the right just as a bunch of people were leaving and yelled "HOLY FUCK!" and proceeded to burst out laughing. I laughed til I cried and then laughed til I couldn't breath. Basically there was a woman walking around dressed like a duster. I'm not talking about people with furry jackets. I'm talking about someone talking 20m of the fluffy toilet seat cover material and turning it into a jacket. This woman looked like she could lie on her side and become one of those car wash rollers. She looked like Big Bird turned white!!

This woman was probably a size 10, 12 max. But with her jacket on, she looked like a size 28!! She was seriously 3 times the normal size with that jacket on!!! I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't HIDE my laughing! Neither of us could stop laughing! After a good 5mins and many tears, we finally calmed down and paid our bill. Stuffing ourselves with that last coffee was worth it for the laughing fit we had. Who the hell walks around dressed like Big Bird dipped into a vat of bleach????? We tried to get a photo, but with all the furniture stacked infront of us, we failed in that mission.......until next time Big Bird.

A weekend of fresh homemade food

Ever since I stopped boxing on Saturday mornings, I've got a little ritual with my parents. We generally spend the morning doing a bit of grocery shopping around the local fruit stores, grocery stores and the Flemington Paddy's Market and afterwards, I would take them out to lunch. Nothing fancy, just cheap asian food served in big bowls. However, after my week of nonstop eating out plus the fact that we got some really good ingredients, I thought we should do a bit of home cooking.

Big juicy eggplants and capsicums

Shitake Mushrooms $3.50 a box

Shanghai Bok Choi $4 a BOX (And its just the best centre bits!!)

First thing we did when we got home from the markets was knock up a BIG bowl of fresh steaming hot noodles with a combo veggie and roast duck soup.

Doesn't look too appealing, but its one of the best damn soups you'll ever have. We actually get a constant supply of roasted duck head and necks which we use in our soup broth. The roasted duck gives the soup a sweet yet aromatic taste. I would prefer this to chicken soup any day!!


With all the fresh fruit and veggies we bought, I thought I'd make the most of what we had.

Scrambled eggs with Macadamia and Lemon Myrtle Dukkah....

...served with Rocket & tomato salad with Lemon Myrtle & balsamic vinegarette

Last week we went to Campsie as a part of our Saturday ritual to visit this new store that basically sells large amounts of frozen food. From frozen dumplings, to crab claws to flounders and lobster balls and also.....frozen Ramen. So of course I had to buy a few packs to try. It is basically fresh ramen that has been frozen and includes a liquid stock base. So with what was in my fridge, I tried to make my version of the Shoyu Ramen. Step 1 is to gather all the necessary ingredients (Or whatever is in your fridge).

Frozen fresh Ramen and liquid stock base

Fresh Shitake Mushrooms

Pearly white Inoki Mushrooms

Medium to hard boiled egg

Throw noodles into boiling water, drain after cooking for 2 mins (It actually cooks ALOT faster than dried instant noodles). Rinse noodles and drain well. Add soup stock to boiling water with Shitake mushrooms. Cook until tender. Add Inoki mushrooms when almost done. Pour over Ramen and garnish with egg and shallots.

End product

So what do you think? Almost looks as appealing as the packaging! Tasted pretty damn good as well! I think I'm going to stock up one a few more of these. Its almost as good as Shin Ramyun. ALMOST.

A girls night out gorging

I got wind of a really good Thai place hidden in some deserted corner near Central station called "Spice I am". So I got together with another chilli loving freak of a Cookiez and headed on over after work.

Knowing that there is usually a line, I gave my number to them and headed across the road for a quick drink. (Well...Cookiez needed to catch up after I drank an entire bottle of wine at work...) Less than 3mins after we walked across the road and ordered our drinks, I got a call on my mobile saying our table was ready!! Crap!! SCULL!! We looked like 2 lunatics standing in a deserted pub sculling alcohol like alcoholics we are. We cross the road and immediately get seated. We had a quick scan of the menu and knew immediately what we wanted.

Green Papaya Salad (Som Tum) - $7.90

MmmMmm this was good! We requested a medium hot version of this and found the salad slighty sweet, slightly sour, slightly salty and a nice well balanced heat to it (The essence to all good thai food!). The salad was refreshing and the additional roasted peanuts on the side added a really good crunch to the salad. That and the few slices of raw cabbage really helped to refresh the palate and cool down the mouth. (Something I didn't know that I would need!!)

Jungle Curry (Chicken) - $10.90

I've heard so many people rave about the Jungle Curry, I just had to order it. It was hot. Not "OMG PULL MY TONGUE OUT!!" HOT, but just hot. We got warned by the waiter about how hot it is before ordering it, but we were still disappointed. There was something not right about this dish. Maybe because it was slightly bitter because of the types of herbs and spices used, or maybe because its a coconut milk-less curry, or maybe it was just...hot. I don't like food being hot for the sake of being hot. A dish needs to be spicy for a reason. Its like people lopping spoonfuls of chilli into a dish just to make it hot, not because the dish tastes better hot (e.g. my dad putting chilli sauce on a cabonara pasta). This was the case for this dish. There was no proper underlying taste. I didn't know what I was eating. There was bamboo shoots, but I couldn't really taste it. There was some type of curry leaves, but I couldn't taste it. It was just.....hot.

Nam Khao Tod - $13.90
Crispy Rice Salad with Thai Pork Sausage

When I ordered this dish, I wanted to make sure that we had a good balance of really hot (The jungle curry) and medium hot (Papaya salad), so I asked the waiter if this dish is spicy or not. His reply "Its a little spicy". Perfect! We've got 3 degrees of hotness. The dish arrives and I did the little photo thing whilst poor Cookiez sat there salivating over the dish. The minute the camera was put away, we pick up our forks and shovelled some into our mouths. My response? "MmMmm YUMMMMM!! MMmMmm OMG HOTTTTT!!!!!!!".

For something that was supposedly "Mildly spicy", I felt like my entire mouth was getting burned with sulphuric acid. Tears started welling in my eyes, beads of sweat broke out across my forehead and my nose started running. This was after ONE bite! Oh but it was good! The rice was indeed crispy, there was a nice salty and chilli balance to the dish. Again, the peanuts add another dimension of crunchy texture to the dish. The only problem was that it was so hot! I know water doesn't help, not that it stopped me! I tried the old have some rice/carb to absorb the chilli oil burning the tongue, only it made it worse so I had more water. We were barely 1/3 of the way through our meal when I had drank and entire litre of water by myself. The waiter must've seen that I was in pain and quickly ran over with another bottle of water which we quickly polished off. That and another huge steaming bowl of rice!!

The servings weren't big...and considering 2 of the dishes were salads, I was surprised how much pain I was in when I put the last forkful of food into my mouth. It felt like my stomache was about to split open and everything is going to fall out and spontaneously combust right infront of my eyes. We really didn't eat that much!! So why does it feel like I swallowed a whole cow?? Maybe it was the 1.5L of water I had!!!

Dinner cost us less than $20 per person and I felt like I've eaten 3 buffets. We decided to walk it off as I couldn't handle sitting down again. We did nothing more strenuous than a casual stroll around Chinatown. About 40mins later, we were both feeling much better. The tearing pain in our stomache was gone and out whole overeating debacle was behind us. So we did what anyone else would do in such a situation..... ICE CREAM!!! (We don't learn ok??)

5mins later we're standing at the French Riviera looking at their huge arrays of ice cream. The French Riviera moved from Double Bay sometime last year and I never bothered to track it down since I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. I used to visit the old French Riviera when it was in Double Bay as a kid. I first got introduced to the place when I was in primary school (Probably atleast 15years now!!!). My now brother in law bought me along on a date with my sister. I think he was trying to earn brownie points by interacting with the annoying little baby sister!

We actually visited this place last Saturday, but since I was sick as a anything, there would be no ice cream for me. This time, cough or not cough, deathbed or no deathbed, nothing is going to stop me! However, we got seated next to the dessert counter which made it so much harder to decide what we want!!!

MmMmm...Tiramisu...

MMMMMM Cheesecake!

In the end, we settled for #14 (I can't even pronounce let alone remember how to spell it). Basically it was a SINGLE serve of mixed ice cream, choc orange cognac sauce, whipped cream and nuts. They usually come with slices of banana as well..... considering I could feel my stomache doubling over at the though of eating something as dense as banana, we decided to leave it out. As for the mixed ice cream, for a single serve, you get to choose your 3 scoops. For us, it was walnut, irish creme and rum and raisin. Don't be mislead by their use of the word "scoops". If you order 1 scoop of ice cream to eat in, you actually get the equivalent of 3 scoops! And our single serve turned out to be this:

Want a close up??

MmMmm Fudgy.....

Oh YUMM!!! Oh god my stomache is going to explode!! But...OH YUMM!! I'm not a huge fan of Rum and Raisin, and usually I would ask for it to be left out if we're ordering their rainbow bowl. But boy....I'm glad we ordered it! This is truely a rum and raisin ice cream as everything mouthful had some plump juicy raisins to munch on. The walnut was really nutty and added a nice texture to the ice cream. The Irish cream was nice, but I'd much prefer to drink a glass of baileys over ice....but then I am an alcoholic so you can ignore that comment. The whole bowl was drenched in their choc orange cognac sauce and omg! It tasted like molten jaffa lava! The whole thing was topped in whipped cream and crunchy toasted nuts. Not wanting to overeat and feel sick again, we scrapped the whipped cream off after eating all the nuts on top. We made a good effort and go through about 1/2 of it. Let me remind you, this is a serving for ONE. And SOMEONE wanted to order the Rainbow bowl for 2-3 people!! hehehe

Again, we walked out of the place clutching our stomaches trying to suck it in...but it was no use. I think I'm done eating out for awhile...actually...I think I'm done eating fullstop. I'm going to need a break from anything more filling than soup and salad...never again! But then I say that everytime.....but this time I'm serious!!

Spice I am
90 Wentworth Ave
Surry Hills

http://www.spiceiam.com

French Riviera
Liverpool St (Near Sussex St)

A night out with the old biscuits - Encasa

As I mentioned before, both my parents are chefs, and naturally they have the mentality that they can cook better food than anyone else. That or it'll always be better value and quality if they cooked at home themselves. When we were young, whenever we ate out, it was either yum cha on the weekends, or a big family dinner at some chinese restaurant with the full lobsters/abalone type meals. I remember when I was in primary school, we took our parents out to some thai/indian restaurant for something different. Even as a kid, I liked the food, except that the servings were small and "expensive" compared to chinese food. We didn't hear the end of that for atleast a week. Everytime we mentioned that meal, my parents had a look of disgust and kept saying they should've just stayed home and cooked noodles, it'll be cheaper and taste better. After that, we stuck with our chinese restaurants. When my sister moved to Malaysia and then Singapore, my parents were forced to try another type of asian cuisine whenever they went overseas.

Ever since I started working and could afford to take my parents out to dinner, I've been trying to subject them to different cuisines. The real turning point would've been 2 years ago when we took them to my favourite BBQ City for Korean. They LOVED the food. They RAVED about the food. I have NEVER seen my parents react that way to ANY restaurant before unless it was chinese food. And even then, they didn't RAVE about it. They would say that it was good food, but because it was food we were familiar with, there was never any surprise. Ever since that one meal at BBQ City, they have become alot more accepting of other types of food. I mean I used to take them to different restaurants, but the decision was solely based on value, even if it didn't taste the best. But now, the focus is to take them to unique restaurants with good food, even if its expensive, so they can try new things. Here's a few places I've taken them to:

- Sushi Suma - Japanese. I love Sushi Suma. Their servings are huge, the prices are cheap, and the food is great. My parents have always thought Japanese food was raw fish, small serves and expensive, this restaurant introduced them to a range of other dishes that are actually COOKED. My mum, a eel hater, loved their Teriyaki Eel rice.

- The Little Snail - French. Ok.....its not really "FRENCH", but the location was good and allowed us to take a bit of a walk through the city and darling harbour. They have a lunch special deal where you get 3 courses for $24 compared to $42 at night. My parents loved the duck pate and the mushroom crepes which was about as french as it got. They refused to try the snails, but atleast they can boast to their old fogies that they went to a French restaurant.

- Buon Gusto - Italian. This is one of my favourite Italian restaurants. The atmosphere is great, and its a quaint little restaurant tucked in the back streets behind Sydney Uni. Their pasta isn't great, but I like the simplicity of their food and the service. Plus its always good when a restaurant offers free alcohol at the end of a meal. My parents were surprised Italian food does not equal spaghetti.

- Belgian Beer Cafe - Belgian. Of course, I had to order their mussels and my parents loved it. They never knew such type of food existed, and all the other entrees and mains I ordered got a good review from them which says alot. This remains as one of their favourite restaurants.

- Lowenbrau Keller - German. I had to bring them here for the beer and pork knuckles. We've been back a few times, each time with overseas friends and relos. Its more of a novelty thing for them then the food itself. Like them, I find German food too meaty and too rich. Its not a restaurant that they would choose to go to, unless its with one of our beer loving friends.

- Thailand - Thai. This restaurant had a nice combination of novelty and good food. I deliberately booked us a table where we had to sit on the floor which probably ads to why they like this place. The food is always good and even impressed my parents! Plus it gives them another thing to boast to their friends about.

Given that I've taken them to a variety places already, what is left? My favourite Spanish restaurant Encasa of course. And with any Spanish restaurant, the more people, the more tapas the better. ESPECIALLY with Encasa as their Tapas is out of this world!!! The food is orgasmic and the prices are more than decent. So with that in mind, I invited my Dad's other old fogie friends and their daughter to join us for dinner. The table for 6 was booked and a Paella for 2 was pre-ordered. (ALWAYS book, even on a weekday!)

I actually have alot in common with their daughter. Both our parents are chefs. And both our parents always have the same complaint about food. Its all about quantity and value, and its always chinese food. But both of us have the same mission. To introduce our parents to different cuisines. So after scanning the menu, we had decided on ordering all of my favourite tried and tested dishes, plus a few other ones I haven't tried before. The tapas came out almost immediately and it was praises all round. A great result considering the old biscuits were already whinging about how danky the place was and why is it located in a hole before they even WALKED into the place. Usually if my parents don't enjoy the food, they won't go for seconds, but this time, they were asking people to pass them certain dishes, fighting for the last piece on the plate and so forth. So what did I order that got my parents and their old biscuit friends happy?? (Excuse the crappy photos taken with my phone!)

Tortilla de Espinacas $11 - Omelette with spinach and pine nuts (4 Eggs)

Unfortunately, this got sliced, diced and devoured before I even had a chance to pull the camera out! I'm not a huge fan of cooked spinach and prefer them raw, but THIS was nice. The omlette was quite light and the spinach gave it a nice delicate flavour with the pinenuts adding a bit of bite. Even my parents were impressed despite my dad's comments about him being one of the best omlette makers. *rolls eyes*

Mejillones a la Marinera $11.50

Black mussels in fresh tomato sauce with basil and chilli.

These mussels were GOOD. The sauce was even better! I actually think these mussels taste better than any of those mussel pots out there, even the Belgian beer cafe! They were plump and juicy, and covered with their spicy salsa sauce. The one thing I hate is alot of places either overcook the mussels or undercook them. These were cooked JUST perfectly. This definately impressed the oldies as they're used to the overcooked, smothered in black bean sauce type mussels that the Chinese always cooks.

Albondigas $10.50 - Beef meatballs in almond sauce.

OK, they really should've written this as Beef meattennisballs in almond sauce. They were HUGEEEEEEE! Holy bejeezus! They truely look like BEEF BALLS. I cut them in half and they were still bigger than the meatballs you get at yum cha. Unlike the chinese meatballs where they add quite a bit of flour to give the meat a smooth consistency, these balls were rough and actually tasted like beef. It was like a juicy steak.....in ball form. The almond sauce was nothing special, and if I wasn't told that there were almonds in it, I wouldn't have know. It was ok...but I won't be ordering this dish again.

Patatas Bravas $7.50

- Fried potato w/ garlic mayonnaise and spicy tomato salsa

MAuahAauahAU This is what I call high class chips! Its so deliciously simple! Fry some potatoes (Another one of my life's favourite food), drench it in some spicy salsa and then cover in a rich garlicky mayonnaise! Its ingenious!! The potatoes were fried until they were golden and crunchy, but biting into it reveals a soft pillow of fluffy potatoe......oh god this is good! My mum who hates fried food went back for seconds and thirds and fourths!!

Gambas con Alioli $16??

- Grilled prawns with fresh made garlic mayonnaise

The tapas size only came with 4 prawns, so they offered to add in 2 extra prawns so I didn't have to get the main. The prawns aren't actually grilled. They've actually been deep fried (batterless of course) and then covered with salt and pepper almost chinese style. These prawns were SOOOO meaty and fresh! The salt and pepper seasoning was gorgeous! The Alioli was a bit of a let down unfortunately. I couldn't taste any of the garlic in it, and they would've been better off giving us the Garlic Mayonnaise they used on the potatoes. Why they used another type is beyond me. The only real complaint I have is that the prawns were too hot!! Because they had been deep fried, they were HOT. As in after I carefully tried to avoid using my hands, I still had red swollen fingers after trying to peel them! Becareful!!!

Champiñones al Ajillo $8 - Sizzling Garlic Mushrooms

I LOVE this dish. And I mean I REALLY REALY LOVE this dish. I love ANYTHING with mushrooms in it. You can almost guarantee if the menu has a dish with mushrooms in it, I'll order it. And I LOVE garlic. The way we swoon over Habibs Garlic Mayonnaise would be a good indication of how much I love my garlic. Combining the two makes one of the ultimate orgasmic dishes EVER. HOWEVER......I was hesitant on ordering this dish as my parents (Specifically my mum) is a health nut. We don't eat oil at home. Our form of oil comes from fish, and when we dry pan fry salmon, the salmon gives off a fish oil which we save to use in our stir fries. So imagine my surprise when my mum asked for a spoon so she could spoon some of the garlic infused oil onto her plate to dip her bread into! *Shock**HoRRoR* This became a problem when my mum and dad started fighting over the mushrooms! I wish I had ordered the main size instead of the tapas size!

Paella Valenciana $48 - Saffron rice with chicken and seafood for 2 people

I am glad I only ordered a Paella for 2, because it fed the 6 of use easily! But then we did pig out on the tapas! And their sauces were oh-so-good we went a bit nuts with the bread as well. I previously explained to the oldies that we only ordered a Paella for 2, and when it came out, their eyes all popped out and went "THATS FOR 2?????". Ahuh! I really don't see how this Paella could be for 2...its HUGE! If you came and ordered this between you and another friend, don't even think about ordering anything else. And I'd lay off all liquids to make room for the Paella! The rice was moist and fluffy but still had a bit of the bite to it. This is miles better when compared to the watery mess at Captain Torres. Just a squeeze of lemon to lighten the dish makes it so much easier on our already bulging stomaches. The mussels were a tad dry and overcooked, but then thats what happens when you bake them instead of steaming them. The pipis and calamari were really nice and tender and the slices of marinated roasted capsicums added a nice bit of tang.

MMMmmmMmm All in all, it was a fabulous meal. Not a single complaint from ANY of the old biscuits which is really rare! All that food for less than $20 a person! We're already planning another trip here, this time with my cousin and family. Like I said, the more the merrier and the more tapas the more more merrier!

Encasa
423 Pitt St, Sydney

Tel/Fax 9211 4257

http://www.encasarestaurant.com