joe & dough

Nothing like a coffee date for a Sunday break.

Flat white ($5.30)

It was decent.

But not for a pick-me-up.

It could've really used a stronger shot of coffee.

Teriyaki Chicken ($7.80)

The chicken chunks were well marinated in teriyaki sauce, juicy and tender to the bite.

The zucchini was fresh with a crunch that took away the little greasiness of chicken fat.

And the pineapple chunks were a surprise addition, 

lending a natural sweetness to this sandwich.

Bacon Mushroom Melt ($8)

This was a bun with slight sweetness.

Which was a perfect contrast to its savoury fillings.

The bacon wasn't fatty nor fried to a crisp.

Of course. The portobellos.

The earthy flavours nicely balanced the strong flavours of bacon and mozza melts.

I would be biased in my love of mushroom to say that this was my preferred choice.

But otherwise, speaking on an entirely impartial stomach,

there's an equal chance of my second order for both sandwiches.

Happy campers :)

Borough Market on a day too cold to be out on the streets of #London.

Morning walk through the floors of Tate Modern.

My parents brush with Art.

Pun totally intended.

The winds were harsh and streets too cold.

Yet we walked on past Shakespeare's Globe towards Borough Market.

Without a shelter to hide,

it was the food that took our mind off the cold for a bit.

A very short bit.

The Mont d'Or

Simply heat and serve for a deliciously simple cheese fondue.

The costs weren't for the smells. But take my advice.

No. Don't smell it.

It's good when infused in oil.

But that's as far as we go.

I mean, as far as we stay away.

This was new.

I didn't see a demo kitchen last time I was here.

Four years ago?

It's been that long already.

I actually have no idea what it was but it had a pungent meat taste.

Too pungent to be enjoyable.

It was huge on fat and anything hot tasted better that it would on a cold, cold day.

But this!

Was just as good as I remembered.

Thai Green Curry was awesome.

With rice.

So was the Vietnamese Curry.

Ohmyyum.

Fresh.

And pricey it seems.

A treat for the eyes!

Mum's lunch.

We grabbed a weiner.

With tomato and sauerkraut.

Dad had a smoked meat sandwich.

My parents and their less than preferred food choices.

Thanks for sticking it out with us :)

Raclette cheese.

Shaved and served with new baby potatoes.

Delish!

Walking onwards to London Bridge after thawing in the church.

I kid you not.

It was THAT cold.

Look at their faces.

And no, they didn't stay to watch the tower bridge lift.

But they waited for me to.

I was too excited for my own good.

I almost froze over in the cold.

*sings

London Bridge is lifting up.

Falling down.

Lifting up.

Shop on.

Too cold to do anything else but hang out in the shopping streets of Oxford Circus.

Their first experience on Primark.

No one went mad shopping. We came out with small paperbags.

Good job!

And a good fifteen minute walk home to Cosway Street right where Marylebone is.

Seashell of Lisson Grove and their awesome cod and chips.

Takeaway packed with pots of tomato, mustard and vinegar.

Rough cut chips with mayo and tomato.

The indulgence.

And because we wanted a rice meal...

Minced beef and mushroom cooking on the stove.

Fried.

Chef Nigel and I.

With the simplest of salt and black pepper from the cafe at Tate Modern.

Oil from the minced beef.

We managed a decent fried shortgrain rice attempt at home.

Topped with hand pulled pieces of buffalo mozzarella.

This was simple.

Simply satisfying.

:)

simple happiness

A favourite.

Lean chicken and baked beans.

This would be very good with rice.

Very.

And love is,

finding leftovers on your table after a long day.

Homemade meat balls and mixed mushrooms.

And why I love my place.

It's got roasted three layer pork rice at just $2.

Mmhmm.

I kid you not.

Simple happiness in life.

It's about comfort food #CookForFamily

It isn't rocket science to #CookForFamily.

But it might be rocket science for a possible followup on #WashForFamily :p

Cook and eat first.

Worry about the wash later.

So let's talk about what you need.
Just if you'd like to know, that's 22 small chinese black mushrooms, 150g of dried baby scallops, 10 leaves of lettuce, 3 bunches of parsley, 500g of minced pork.
Heavily dependent on the number of people you're feeding
and what you like.
Well what I like.
Mushrooms.
If you couldn't yet tell. :)

The minced pork is seasoned with oyster sauce, sesame oil and kikkoman light sauce.
And for that crunch,
Preserved vegetables.
Dong Cai. 

I couldn't find the rice cup that normally resides in the rice container so I used a jollibean container.

Washed and dried of course.

1.5 containers for 5 of us.

I left it to soak for just a half hour.

Makes it easier to break later with the stirring process. Skip that if you like porridge with whole rice grains.

Just a note:

These rice grains are thirsty hippos that drink up a lot more water than you'd expect.

If you dont want an overly thick and dry porridge,

go easy on the amounts of rice or please have a big pot!

Add in chicken soup stock or just one chicken stock cube.

Just keep stirring, just keep stirring.

And add on water throughout the bubbling process.

Add in roughly formed minced pork balls once it comes to a boil.

And you get lunch that looks like this.

Warm, comforting and nutritious porridge.

From our kitchen to yours. :)

chinese flower mushroom and luncheon meat carbonara

Cooking at home.

San Remo's linguine- al dente.

Chinese flower mushrooms- soaked and diced.

Luncheon meat- diced.

Sounding like a perfect disaster?

I never realised how the addition of mushroom into the pasta liquid could account for such a delicious lingering aroma of mushroom on the pasta.

Add in a tablespoon of salt and a generous dash of olive oil.

Add in the luncheon meat after the water comes to a fierce boil.

 And I know I've violated all the conventional rules of pasta cooking.

And what about the sauce?

Buttermilk!

Gives that deliciously umami twang. :)

Healthier choice.

Make a simple roux of butter and flour.

Add some milk to thin the roux and finally add in some buttermilk.

I'm not giving exact proportions here simple because I don't have any.

Shave in some organic pecorino cheese.

A dash of oregano.

Some ground black pepper.

And toss them all up for linguine alla carbonara.

Bon appetit! :)

mushroom minced pork balls in oyster sauce

once in a while,

we see something new on the dinner table.

while we love the perennial favourites that she dishes out since our days of youth (or mine at least :p)

we're willing to try new dishes and give our due comments.

and this, falls into the to-be-cooked-again category.

first thing this reminded me of, was the entire black mushroom topped with minced pork paste as they usually do for hotpot places.

i realise that perhaps if it were to be steamed, the mushroom might end up being too dry.

this was just nice. the juices of the minced pork and fragrance of the mushroom.

the oyster sauce that complemented with its saltiness.

thanks for cooking dinner. day after day. :)

Banh Khun Mae

And I'm disappointed that after all these years of pilgrimage to Bangkok faithfully year on year, I still cannot speak a sentence in Thai. :(

For what I can't speak, I'll just point and eat :)

"Secret recipes passed down from generation to generation were collected, treasured and presented for your delectation by Ban Khun Mae, the restaurant that is equally famous for its authentic tastes, ambience and warm Thai hospitally." taken from their website. Which I will concur, save for the typographical errors. :)

If you've never heard of the term repeat visits, then you have not joined my family on our repeats. It's a cycle really. A fixed pattern of change. Every year we go on our annual Bangkok trip and for at least one meal, we have it at Ban Khun Mae.

This was our version of the restaurant.

Nigel says, "Which one? The dark and dim place? There's live music at night?"

Yup. That's right. :)

 

The dollop of coconut cream that must be stirred into the green curry to enjoy the richness of the tender chicken green curry gravy that makes you want to eat a lot more rice than you already are having. :p

Just in case you don't know what gives it that green color, it's not the eggplant but a mixed paste of green chillies that have been pounded and mashed before its addition to the curry paste that gives it a green colour. Likewise for red curry, which gets its colour not from the curry paste but made a deeper shade of red by the red chillies pounded and mashed into a paste.

This is lard nation. Honestly. Thick pieces of pork fat give that glistening texture to the glass noodles and that also accounts for all that flavour and more bite! You can't stop eating those flavourful glass noodles fried with shallots and dark soy sauce perhaps till you see those pork fat pieces but even then...

Huge river prawns accompany this dish. Fresh and firm prawns. Mmm.

Pla Gow, the garoupa is used for this deep fried fish dish drizzled with tamarind and sweet Thai chilli sauce. This is the dish that saw my dad eating both the head and the tail, crunching his teeth on those deep fried pieces of fish meat, cartilage and bone!
The sauce might be too sweet and cloying after a while but the flesh of this fish stays juicy and sweet, well encased in its deep fried exterior. :)

And let's not forget our greens. I'm not biased but really, even this was well done.

Fresh and crunchy kai lan fried with straw mushrooms and oyster sauce.

No one's gotta tell us to eat our greens when cooked like this :)

458/6-9 Siam Square Soi 8, Rama 1 Road, 10330, Thailand

11am - 11pm

Mondays- Sundays.

what's to be had at 313?

Too cute it made me smile :) Sitting in the al fresco area was a choice I didn't have to give a second thought about. :)

 

I was torn between wanting to see pretty latte art and a cold drink. Cold won me over on an unusually sunny day. :) Vanilla latte it was. Good amount of coffee amidst all that milk. It wasn't 70% milk on a usual latte. Definitely less but it was aromatic and smooth on taste. :)

For starters.

Bangers and mash. The bangers were tasty. Very tasty. The creamy mash was fluffy and light on flavour. The onion gravy added the needed saltiness to the mash. We cleaned up the plate. 

Beer battered fish and chips. A generous 4-piece fish portion with a handful of thick potato wedges. Served piping hot it was tasteful on its own but made better with tartar sauce. Personal preference :)

Sticky date pudding with a lovely dollop of old fashioned vanilla melting prettily into the warm pudding.

The handful of plump raisins in the caramel sauce were bursting with rum. What a surprise :) 

Chocolate. There were more adjectives accompanying this on the menu but let's state the obvious because the obvious was really thick and rich.

Oh if you loved chocolate.

You also need a tissue paper on hand because it's gonna be lip smackingly chocolate-y. I was with a girlfriend. We could get as messy as we wanted. Okay, maybe just me because she was prettily made up and took care to dab at her mouth after every spoonful. I just relied on my trusty tongue. :p

Thanks for the treat and for the souvenir from your trip!

What a tongue twister.

I'll be glad to use it for hmm. red packets? :) A big fish and a tiny fish pouch for coins.

I need to get me to Vietnam one of these days.

So Oriole. For coffee art the next time round.

The barista washes his coffee machine at 8pm sharp daily so get your coffee fix before then!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time...

Mr Herbivore :)

meats. i mean, meets Ms Carnivore.

Falls in love

And then there was. Lil' Seafood-ivore. 

With a couple of tablespoons of dashi miso paste...

And some other additions

They came, they swam, they cooked.

A one pot bubbling dish for the family of Omnivores.

And they ate happily ever after.