food

Do you love Super Mario?Veruca Salt made not one, but two character birthday cakes last weekend. Pocahontas wanted a Super Mario mushroom cake, the special 1Up power up mushroom that gives you an extra life extra power/health in everyone's favourite childhood video game. [Thanks to fushmush and FFichiban for the correction]This cake was reasonably easy to construct - butter cake cut to size and

I haven't always been confident with yeast. The thought of working with something that's alive, that grows, that expands, that could die if not treated carefully, it a petrifying thought for someone who has a reputation for being an accidental assassin when it comes to tending herbs and pot plants.But yeast is sturdier than you'd think. All it requires is time and a little TLC.It was Not Quite

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the final day of a week-long competition frenzy, and it's concluding with a bang!It's lucky prize number eight, and the winner will be very lucky indeed. The final prize has been kindly donated by Raita Noda, owner and head chef at Ocean Room.PRIZE #8: A $200 dinner voucher for two at Ocean Room, SydneyIf

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the fourth day of a week-long competition frenzy. Don't forget to check back here Friday lunchtime for the final prize worth $200!Today's competition is brought to you by Menulog, and it's ideal for anyone who has ever sighed at the thought of having to cook dinner.PRIZES #6 and #7: A $50 home delivery

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! This is the third day of a week-long competition frenzy and it's perfect for all the sweet tooths.Today's competition is brought to you by SWEETNESS The Patisserie, the stall that is usually over-run with fanatic customers at the Pyrmont Good Living Growers Markets, desperate to stock up on Gena's award-winning

Do you like pig?We love pigs, especially ones that come with crackling. Thin bubbling shards of crisp crunchy shattering crackling that cannot be eaten quietly. That's the kind of pig I love.One of three queues at Emperor's Garden on Chinese New Years EveIt was Chinese New Years Eve on Sunday, and you could feel the excitement in the air in Chinatown, particularly at Emperor's Garden BBQ House

After all your awesome suggestions on what to do with this honey, I have to admit we've taken the simple approach. We've just been drizzling it on stuff. This morning, my son enjoyed some on his wheat toast. Some of you might have noticed that Summer and I have all but given up on trying to make daily posts. We're both very busy and it's getting harder and harder to make time to get together and bake. That doesn't mean we've given up on the blog, it just means that we've got a lot of projects in the works! I'm trying to keep things going over here, but if you get bored in the meantime, make sure to head over to Design Is Mine , which is sporting a new layout and as usual, pointing out all the goodies Summer comes across online. Look forward to seeing more guest posts in the future from some of my buddies, and the last few soups of the season before it gets too hot to make it. (yeah, like that's ever going to happen. IT SNOWED AGAIN TODAY.)

Grab Your Fork is celebrating 1,000 posts this week and you're invited to the party! Yesterday's competition has spread like wildfire - seems like a lot of you want to win a Global knife, with 68 entries received already! The demand for the digital scales and the cupcake carrier isn't too far behind either.Today's competition is brought to you by Kei's Kitchen, a mother and daughter team whom you

You may have noticed that there aren't many shellfish recipes on this blog. Fish recipes , yes, but not recipes involving mussels, shrimps/prawns, scallops etc. There's a good reason for that, but it doesn't mean I don't cook them at home. Contrarily to me, K. adores shellfish, so every now and then I try a new recipe. This recipe is an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's, who uses small prawns and eats them with shell and all. I much prefer cooking with large tiger prawns - they look more decent to me. K. wholeheartedly approved, and considering it took about 5 minutes in total, then it's a good recipe indeed :) Spicy-Salty Tiger Prawns ( Soolased krevetid vürtsidega ) Serves 3 to 4 400 g unpeeled fresh tiger prawns (headless, thoroughly defrosted and drained, if frozen) 2 generous pinches of sea salt flakes a generous pinch of fennel seeds a generous pinch of coriander seeds a generous pinch of cumin seeds a small pinch of dried chilli flakes Place fennel, coriande...

Congratulations dear reader. You are officially reading the 1,000th post by Grab Your Fork.It's been almost five years of feasting and what a delicious ride it's been. Having a blog has prompted me to explore all of Sydney, to embrace its multicultural flavours, to support local producers and to share it all with you.Not only have I relished the perfect justification to eat 'just a little bit

I feel like I'm back in Vietnam, even though I'm in a household in Sydney's inner west. It's not just the round folding tables covered with plastic tablecloths, the bottles of soft drink waiting on each table, or the collection of plastic stools. It's the fact that there are five tables of ten set up in the living room and the tantalising smells of seafood and hot oil coming from the

Voting polls close in less than 24 hours and Grab Your Fork is currently running 2nd in Best Blog City, at this minute only 5 points off the lead.VOTE NOW if you think Grab Your Fork deserves to win Best Food Blog - City.Polls close at 12 noon Sunday 25 January 2009 (Sydney-time).Thank you for your support!

You're probably wondering why the bread on the photo looks so yellow. No, it's not me and K. mishandling the white balance on our camera. It's just that this bread is so exceptionally yellow in colour (mustard powder + ground turmeric), as well as mustardy in flavour (whole-grain mustard + mustard powder + mustard seeds). Definitely (or perhaps?) too mustardy to be your daily bread, but it would make a lovely loaf to accompany a simple vegetable soup, and perhaps even a cheeseboard. The recipe is adapted from an Estonian supermarket food magazine Toit & Trend. Mustard Bread ( Sinepisai ) Makes 1 loaf 250 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water 2 Tbsp vegetable oil 2 Tbsp whole-grain mustard 400 g plain/all-purpose flour 1 packet active dry yeast (app. 11 g) 3 tsp mustard powder (I used Coleman's English) 0.5 tsp ground turmeric 0.5 tsp salt 1 egg, whisked, for brushing 2 Tbsp brown mustard seeds, for topping Mix the water, oil and whole-grain mustard in a large bowl. Mix the flo...

I don't mean to get all Portland-centric on here, but we've been meaning to get to this place since we first heard it was opening, and tonight we finally got a chance. Ned Ludd is our buddy's restaurant on MLK & Failing, and it is awesome. Located in a former pizza joint, they are making use of the built in wood-fired oven and roasting up a variety of awesome shit. (Blog here.) I was too busy downing Laurelwood Pale Ales and chatting up my husband (this was our first date in ages!) to get any pictures of what we ate, but everything on the menu looked great, and what we chose was phenomenal. We shared a baked pasta and braised lamb dish, I had roasted mussels served on top of a tasty broth with chunks of crusty bread soaking it up (damn, dude) and Jason had pork with a spicy orange sauce with rosemary (they called it a stew but it was kind of saucy?) over the fluffiest polenta I've ever seen. We polished everything off with our eyes rolling back in our heads, a...

So I have a bit of a thing for banana cake.But what's not to love? Moist cake, the creamy fragrance of banana and surprise crunchy nuggets of walnut. Bliss.This version takes banana cake to a new level of decadence with the addition of caramel icing. The icing isn't sickeningly sweet, but adds a slight toffee sweetness that matches well with the banana and walnut.With a healthy dollop of sour

Remember my post on the Top 15 Ramen in Sydney?Two wonderful Grab Your Fork readers, YZ and AN, have come to the rescue by translating the Japanese text within the article. So it turns out the article isn't talking about ramen houses overall, but specifically the Top 15 Ramen Dishes in Sydney.Want to know what they are? Click on the revised post to find out.Of course I must extend a public and

The top 5 nominees in each category and have been announced and Australian bloggers are proudly carrying the flag. Yay!Show your support for Aussie bloggers this Australia Day long weekend by voting now. Voting ends 12 noon Sunday 25 January 2009 (Sydney-time).Congrats to all the Australian food blog finalists!VOTE Best Food Blog - City: Grab Your Fork and Not Quite NigellaVOTE Best Food Blog -

Strawberry cardina $4.00Austrian-style cake covering with fresh strawberry flavoured milk mousse enables itself to be one of our most popular choices for satisfactionForget the economic downturn -- it seems as though chocolate and dessert are the new "me" indulgences to defend us from sorrow.The first 85 Degrees Cake Shop opened in Sydney just over two years ago. Its second fourth outlet (

Here's a clever way to combine the dessert and the after dinner mints served with coffee. The recipe is inspired by a British one using unwhipped double cream (fat content 48%, but not available in Estonia), so I've played around with quantities and serving sizes a bit. It's very-very minty and rather chocolatey - not perhaps everybody's cup of tea. But if you do fancy an after dinner mint, then you'll love it.. I used After Eight Dinner Mints , just because it's a classic, but you could try with some of the other mints instead.. After Dinner Mint Mousse ( After Eight šokolaadivaht ) Serves 6 200 g box of After Eight chocolate mints 2 Tbsp cognac or brandy (I used Georgian Gremi brandy) 300 ml whipping cream (35%) 1 Tbsp caster sugar 0.5 tsp vanilla extract (I used Pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla ) fresh mint, for garnish Put six chocolate mints aside for decorating later. Place the rest if the chocolate mints and cognac/brandy into a small heavy-bottomed saucep...

When I was a kid, I was a picky eater. The type of picky eater who would look at a plate of food and turn my nose up at it just because it looked weird or gross- kind of embarrassing to admit now. The first time I ever tried a pickle, I was 17. How pathetic is that? Guess what, PICKLES ARE AWESOME. I wasted 17 years avoiding pickles for NOTHING. So stupid. Ever since then, (and more so since I met my husband, many years ago) I've attempted to be a more adventurous eater. Sometimes I find myself too grossed out (DANISH CHEESE? My best friend offered me this Danish cheese when I went to visit for her wedding and I almost barfed when I smelled it. I couldn't get it in my mouth.) but I make it a point to try a bite of whatever is in front of me, because you only live once. All that said- I'm 25 years old, and (until this evening) I've never eaten dumplings. That doesn't mean I've never been served chicken and dumplings- far from it. My mom made chicken ...

Edited 21 Jan 2009: GYF reader YZ has kindly translated the entire article so it all makes sense now. The article is about Sydney's top 15 ramen dishes, each pictured and with an accompanying blurb. Translated text has been added in green below. Thanks so much YZ, and GYF reader AN, who also provided translations of the dish names. Been curious about the list of Sydney's top 15 ramen dishes we've

Gyoza, included in the $3 ramen upgrade for 3 gyoza & salad, (otherwise order separately for $5.80 for six)Pork and vegetable dumpling with Japanese soyand citrus dipping sauceThe ramen adventure continues.K & M are still making their way through their photocopied list of Top 15 Ramen in Sydney, photocopied from a Japanese community magazine. They've already eaten at Zenya and are keen to go back

Have you ever cooked oxtail before?  Until mid-November, I hadn't. I had eaten it before (for example during our trip to Spain last March-April), but never actually handled uncooked oxtail in my kitchen. Then, back in November, we had a Offal and Alternative Cuts Cook-Off on my Estonian site , and upon K's insistence, I decided to make an oxtail stew. If you get hold of good-quality oxtail (e.g. with lots of juicy soft meat attached), then there's not much you need to do with your oxtail. Basically, I had to decide whether I want to braise mine in beer or wine (I chose dark beer, Saku Jõulupruul) and which vegetables to go for (carrots, celery and turnips were my choice). Once you've made those decisions, you're well on your way to a beautiful dinner with friends. PS I will be eating some again tonight. K. has just informed us that our friends P&K have invited us for a dinner of oxtail tonight. Mmmmm... :P Oxtail braised in beer ( Õlles hautatud härjasaba ) Ser...

It took me a while to realise that Dragon Star was no more. This behemoth of yum cha, characterised by huge crowds and female 'bouncers' calling table bingo at the top of Chinatown's Market City, used to be one of our favourite haunts on Sunday mornings.So it's been about a year since Dragon Star closed and was reborn as China Grand, a befitting name for one of the biggest single floorspaces in

A short anecdote.We snapped open our complimentary fortune cookies after our dinner at Rhodes recently. It was funny but each of our fortunes seemed highly appropriate. The pragmatic side of me, however, was convinced we were just gullibly buying into statements that could actually apply to anyone, a phenomenon also known as the Barnum effect. The above fortune was mine. Veruca Salt was convinced

I am not a morning person. Over the years I have fallen in love with the idea of being one, but my body just will not give into it. I used to think this was merely due to the fact that I tend to go to bed very late at night, but I realized that even when I go through periods of falling asleep at a reasonable hour, I still cannot function prior to about ten in the morning. This got even worst after I had children, since now I am required to crawl out of our warm bed, carry the kids downstairs, prepare breakfast (albeit usually just a couple of toaster waffles and microwave veggie sausage), fill cups of milk, and do other various parental duties. In between all this, I am usually either stumbling around with an angry look on my face or falling in and out of consciousness while sitting up on the sofa. Coffee can usually help all of this, but truth be told, it usually takes me about two hours after waking up to gather the energy to make some myself. This all being said, every once in awhil...

When it comes to cakes, I do like a bit of culture.I'm talking about natural yoghurt, that thick and somewhat sour dairy product, packed with good bacteria, which is so easy to make. I've only just discovered the joys of Easiyo, and a good friend let me in on the DIY recipe details. It's so cheap and easy to make your own!With a large tub of yoghurt and a few bottles of POM Wondeful pomegranate

photos taken by my Aunt Gina I'm back! I cannot believe that it has been over three weeks since I last posted on here. I was out-of-town until the beginning of the month, then I got sick, and then my computer was hit by a deadly virus. But now I am feeling much better and I have a brand new computer, so posts should be coming much more frequently. I have missed all the baking. To start, I would like to share a recipe that comes from my mother, something that has been made in my family for years. It was made yet again this New Year's day and it filled the whole house with a mouth-watering smell. Luckily for me, a vegetarian version was also made and I was able to enjoy a delicious and hearty meal with everyone else. Thanks Mom for guest blogging and to my aunt for taking photographs. "My Italian family is from Benevento, a little city about 50 miles from Naples. There are many dishes that come from that region, some that are only served on specific holidays. Minaste, or as ...

Do you miss us? I have a photo date with Summer in just about an hour, so fear not- your baked goods jones will be fulfilled later today (hopefully)! But, until then- may I sing the praises of Secret Aardvark Sauce? They don't seem to have a proper website, but I think you can find all the information you need through that link to their myspace page. Listen, dudes- I'm not a Hot Sauce Person. I've never been one of those people who will sully a perfectly good omelette with tabasco (ahem- Jason?) and I rarely reach for the sriracha unless I'm cooking at home (I keep things somewhat mild for my son, so we do have to add spice to our own plates). I like spicy food, but I don't need spice for the sake of spice. Most of the Hot Sauce People I know are now, or have been vegan- a defense mechanism against bland tofu and unattractive piles of hippie chow? Maybe! I mean, I know hot sauce is good- but you don't have to put it on EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME, right? ...

Oven-roasted kingfish $17.00with caramelised eggplant, garlic and tomato and chive vinaigretteIt's the little things.The Sanctuary Hotel has become a little like Old Faithful. Fast, affordable, reliable. And I've yet to endure an overcooked steak. In fact we find the steaks here are still so very good. No horrid bits of gristle, and the steaks are always seared to perfection.I had the

I'm not sure why it took me so long to make my own granola to sprinkle on yogurt for breakfast, considering how incredibly easy it is! The recipe below is a mixture of various ideas, and it's pretty simple. I'm especially fond of the addition of malt extract* that I got from Moosewood granola recipe included in the Moosewood Restaurant New Classics - it adds a lovely, well, malted flavour to the end product. I've used a mixture of chopped apricots, seedless raisins and dried cranberries to 'buff up' my granola, but the choice of dried fruit is obviously yours. What do you do? Make your own granola/müsli or buy from a shop? If you buy, then what's your favourite brand/type? Just curious :) Home-Made Granola ( Kodune krõbe müsli ) Makes enough for 2 persons for a week 100 g old-fashioned rolled oats (about 1 cup) 3 Tbsp dark muscovado sugar 5 Tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes 1 Tbsp flax seeds/linseeds 1 tsp cinnamon 3 Tbsp neutral-flavoured oil 2 Tbsp water 1...

Campos coffee - large flat white $4.00I'm not really a breakfast out person. I'd much to prefer spend breakfast asleep and wake up just in time for lunch. A late lunch is even better.But on a gorgeous summer's day, a weekday when most people are working, even I can appreciate the little bit of luxury that a cafe breakfast can bring.It can't start any better than with a Campos coffee. I'm

Man! We have sort of dropped the ball with posting this year. Between Summer's computer issues, (it's ugly, from what little I've heard.) me going out of town, and this awesome flu I've been saddled with since midway through my trip, not a lot has gotten done. And frankly- I greatly prefer it when life gets in the way of blogging rather than vice versa, what can I say? I've been busy and there's not a lot else to say about it. But here, let me offer you this simple concoction. One of my oldest, dearest friends got married last week at San Francisco's beautiful city hall building. I spent a few days crashing in her apartment with her, and on the first night in, we scoured her cupboards trying to find a snack to hold us over for a few drinks before we went out to dinner with future in-laws. We found enough ingredients for some tasty salad rolls, and she tossed together this little dipping sauce. Usually, when Jason and I have salad rolls, he makes a l...

Look! Look! Say hello to the crabs, kids!Master Four is silently petrified, shrinking back into his chair, but Miss Two is instantly alert and more than a little curious. I feel a little cruel about introducing the little 'uns to our soon-to-be-dinner but the waiter is more than obliging, beckoning Miss Two to come a little closer and touch its shell."Okay, now say goodbye..." The kids start

I've sang praises to cloudberries before on this blog, including recipes for Goat Cheese Mousse with Cloudberry Compote , Home-Made Cloudberry Jam , Squeaky Finnish Cheese with Cloudberries and Mascarpone , Rye Bread Canapés with Cloudberries and Blue Cheese . And I must admit that most of these recipes are extremely simple. But then when you've got such delicious and luxurious ingredients in hand, then there's no need to really get finicky, is there? Here's a dessert I served couple of weeks ago at a dinner party we cooked when catching up with an old friend and her husband. Apparently it's very popular in Norway during the festive season, but serving cloudberries - either fresh or as a jam or compote with whipped cream is typical at home, too. I used a jar of cloudberry compote that K's mum had graciously given us. A true Nordic summer in one serving.  Multekrem or Cloudberries with Whipped Cream ( Murakad vahukoorega ) Serves 4 200 ml whipping cream 2 Tbsp c...

Oh I do love Auburn. It's not a sentiment one often hears in the media, but sitting here, on an aluminium chair at a metal table amidst the hubbub of Auburn Road, I drink in the palpable energy and buzz about the place. The street is filled with passing kids and shoppers, the air is thick with the smell of charcoal and barbecuing meats, and middle-aged men all around me, sit, chat and

I know. The icing does look a little poo-like.I decided to use my plain icing nozzle on a whim. Next time I'll only use it for icing that isn't any shade of brown, even if it does bear a resemblance to the Japanese golden poo good luck charm.But the cupcakes were a hit anyway, a variation I made on Nigella's cupcake recipe. I've also started baking this recipe at a slightly lower temperature,

My fridge is slowly breeding jars of pesto.No, I haven't found a magical cloning forcefield (hello Zumbo macarons!), but I have started a mini-processing factory in the kitchen - one that converts abandoned bunches of basil into that gloriously green paste: pesto.My mother always taught me to 'waste not, want not'. As a kid, it was an oft-heard lecture about starving children in China, about the

Have you been making ice cream or perhaps zabaglione recently? If yes, then you're left with lots of egg whites. Last weekend we had blackberries with zabaglione at friends' place, and were left with 6 egg whites after that. K. had already made the most beautiful macarons for the New Year's Eve party (see Flickr photo set here ), so I had to come up with another idea. Meringues or pavlova are always an option, but then I remember an egg white cake recipe my schoolmate Kristel had shared on my Estonian site , where it had got good reviews. I decided to give it a go. It's a bit similar to the famous Angel Cake (heavy on egg whites, no egg yolks), but it's not as virtuous as it contains almost a stick of butter. Psst - don't tell anyone! :) And it was lovely. Very simple to make (especially with the help of my trustworthy KitchenAid Stand Mixer ), and I loved the dense, moist and small crumb of the resulting cake. I made a plain version, but would consider addin...

They're here!The G-man's email was simple. Oysters. His place. Wednesday.I still remember the mobile phone call earlier this year. "Helen?" he'd asked, his constant smile audibly playing in his voice. "You like oysters, don't you...""Err... yes," I'd replied."Would you be interested in five dozen? Ones you grow?"It didn't take me long to realise he was talking about The Oysterfarm, a system where

Man, when it rains, it pours, right? RIGHT? First, Summer's laptop pooped out a few weeks ago, and now she's got some kind of crazy virus on her desktop computer and she can't get online. Regular posting will resume... as soon as we can get it going, haha. Stuff happens, dudes. Anyway! The other day, I dropped in on some friends (actually, their 7 year old spied me walking down the street past their house and they waved me down and invited me in.) around lunch time and they made these simple little snacks. It was one of those DUH moments- something I'm sure everyone has experienced, right down to the first time someone dipped a french fry in ketchup. DUH! I watched them spend all of 3 minutes in the kitchen preparing "pizza" and when it came out, there it was- DUH DUH DUH! I am sort of starting to think I should maybe get Trader Joe's to sponsor us (yeah, right) since I'm always namedropping, but what can I say? They're in my neighborhood,...

This. Soup. This soup was phenomenal. We had soup on the menu for this week, and when Jason told me what he wanted to do, I was just kind of like, "Oh, that sounds... pretty good, I guess." I like mushrooms okay, but I've had my share of lousy mushroom experiences so I wasn't super pumped about it or anything. I also like quinoa, (that's pronounced keen-wah, by the way) but I wasn't sure how excited I was to have it in a soup. My reservations couldn't have been more misplaced, this might have been the best soup my husband has ever made for me. The soup began a few days ago when Jason made a large batch of chicken stock. It simmered for a few hours and the onions on top began to caramelize, lending a deep golden hue. For this soup, I would HIGHLY recommend starting with your own stock rather than store-bought. Just get a large pot, roughly chop 3 large stalks of celery, 3 large carrots, 3 medium yellow onions, smash some garlic, and throw it in t...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL READERS OF NAMI-NAMI - AND WISH YOU A DELICIOUS AND EXCITING 2009!!! Here's another 'Estonian-style' dish for you, dear readers. But let me first take you back to my first trip across the big pond.. When I was in the US last summer (in June 2008), I spent a few days with a lovely foodblogger Alanna in St Louis, MO. Alanna took very good care of me, and fed me well. One of the dishes she introduced me to, was a Classic Seven-Layer Salad . Last night, at the New Year's Eve party at our place, I served an Estonian equivalent of that salad - which, rather appriopriately for a Beet Princess , also contains a generous beetroot layer. A recipe is adapted from an Estonian cookbook (Pereköögi kokaraamat, 2007). It's best to use a straight glass bowl for this salad, so you could see the pretty layers. Also, make the salad at least the night before to allow the flavours to meld and develop. Estonian Seven-Layer Salad aka Layered Beetroot and Cheese Salad...