MERRY CHRISTMAS =]

lookie at what i got at work!! (above) one of the doctors actually baked us all a plate of Christmas goodies =] =] it was soooo good too! Especially the one in the cupcake patty (not sure what it was) but i couldn't get enough of it! The Christmas pudding thingy was soo cute and it looks so easy to make! i might give it a go myself hehehee

and raffaellos! ahahha someone gave my mum this and now it's mine! WOOT! i didn't want to cut the ribbon tho! amazingly i refrained from opening this for ONE WHOLE DAY! i got it yesterday but i ended up cutting the ribbon today ='( if only i could put the ribbon back together again, that would be awesome!

anyway i'm expecting heaps more Christmas treats and I hope you guys get heaps of treats too!

Strawberry Roll Cake

This one was bought at a shop called "Rainbow Cakes" in Strathfield.

And here's the one I made myself.

Lowenbrau Keller, Ton Ton, Azuma Patisserie and MORE

YAY! I finally finished my exams! So what's the first thing I did to celebrate the end of the torturous hell know as exams? I ATE!

FIRST STOP: LOWENBRAU KELLER

Schweinshaxn (Over roast pork knuckle with Sauerkraut and Mashed Potatoes)

Hawflake girl and I already know that we're having the prok knuckle shared between us, I don't know about her but I'd been dreaming about it for aaaages LOL Sir CKWL couldn't stand the wait til we got there so he'd already eaten but still decided to try A BIT of our pork knuckle but ooooh he sooo didn't eat a bit! We ended up having to order extra mash to share because nothing beats Lowenbrau's mash and also because THERE WASN'T ENOUGH FOOD TO GO AROUNND!!! LOL

Extra side of Mashed Potatoes

Hehehe we weren't the only hungry ones that day, several times parrot flew in and tried to steal sugar. They were successful at it too! I don't know if birds are aloowed to have sugar or not but the cheeky parrots were SO CUTE!

Variation Plate (apple strudel, sticky date pudding, berry crumble and icecream with berry coulis)

Ofenfrischer Apfelstrudel (Traditional Warm Apple Strudel with Freshly Whipped Cream)

The apple strudel without the whipped cream! LOL This was the most lactose free dessert on the menu!

THE AFTER PIC OF THE APPLE STRUDEL.

*Someone* licked their plate clean of the icing sugar hehehe

I think all of Lowenbrau's desserts are pretty good, my favourites being the apple strudel, bier battered apples and the sticky date pudding (which I'd only tried from the variation plate). The icecream on the variation plate was really crap but the berry coulis was very nice, making up for the icecream.

We were clutching our stomachs and groaning when we left and I even make hawflake girl promise that she'd stop me if I wanted to buy cake later!

NEXT STOP: TON TON REGENT

Shio ramen

Ton Ton ramen

Kogashi Ninniku Ramen

Need I state the obvious and say that these were GREAT? they all look similar here though but my kogashi ninniku ramen (garlic ramen topped with black seasame) was defintely worth the frew extra dollars. The pork was sooo much more tender than the pork in the shio ramen. I'm sad to say I've only ordered noodles each time I go to Ton Ton. I will remember to try the other stuff next time!

THIRD AND FINAL STOP FOR THE DAY:AZUMA PATISSERIE

When I say Azuma Patisserie I'm talking about the cake display at the Azuma Kushiyaki in Regent (i.e. right opposite Ton Ton). This is my new found love at the moment and I think it will remain so for quite some time!

Strawberry Layered Cake & Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc $5.90

The Mont Blanc is a chestnut cream cake and features a shiny brown chestnut on the top. I'm amazed at the prettiness of the cake and smooth even piping on the outside. While I don't really like the chestnut itself, I think it's very nice visually.

Mont Blanc innards

That was actually the first time I'd had a Mont Blanc cake. Sure, I'd tried some chestnut cakes before but they were always the quare/rectangluar ones with the chestnut piping on the top and looked mor like watery poo than something you'd eat. The cream on the inside was very nice too but then there was someother sort of cream down the bottom, inside the pastry which was a bit weird. The pastry itself was very nice too.

Strawberry Layered Cake $5.90

This is definitely my favourite at the moment out of all the cakes I've tried at Azuma. Every single layer is PERFECT and the layers of songe cake were SO MOIST they were practically still wet! (Okay, that doesn't sound very nice but trust me, the moist-ness was AMAZING!) The pink layered bits you see were actually THINLY SLICED STRAWBERRIES which was a VERY NICE SURPRISE.

Saint Honore $5.90

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this was CROQUEMBOUCHE CHALLENGE. This was so cute I had to try it. This was slightly disappointing though. The choux pastry puffs tasted like they'd been sitting there for quite some time (it was the only one left when I bought it...) and the pate brisee down the bottom a bit too brown, it started to taste burnt =[ There was "the crunch" from the caramel on the puff pastries though, bring a smile to my face, reminding me of how I wished I was one of the judges the one eating Poh's croquembouche.

Mikan (mandarin) Nerikiri $4.50

These were so cute I had to try them too! LOL I'd never tried nerikiri before and whilst I didn't really like this, I know it was more due to personal preference than because it didn't taste nice. Nerikiri is a type of wagashi (Japanese traditional sweet) eaten at Tea Ceremonies.

The outside had a strong taste of mandarin peels and the inside was filled with red bean paste. I really liked how they did that little slicing of the manadarin the expose the flesh thing. They even tried to make it look like you could actually see the segments of the mandarin!

See the square container of white stuff on the left? That's soy milk pudding. I wanted to try that too but I thought I'd better not be too greedy so didn't end up getting it. Hawflake girl bought it so maybe I'll just wait and see what she says about it.

So that concludes my eating adventures on the last day of exams. Rest assured that I have not been starving myself DURING the exams though. Here's just a few pics from the during-exam-period.

Plum Quark Pastry (Luneburger)

Apple Triangle (Luneburger)

Unseeded Pastrami Roll (Luneburger)

Seeded Pastrami Roll (luneburger)

Smoked Chicken Bagel (Bagel House)

Assorted asian mushrooms hotpot (at home)

First attempt maltesers mochi (made my me)

Gosh they look terrible! But they tasted GREAT! I will try to make them again soon and post them up again along with a recipe.

Yum Cha style custard lo mai chi/mochi

These were my first attempt too. Additional pics and recipe to come later on.

Lindt Dolce/Macaroons

Me making wonton

Excuse the mess on the table...

Finished product


Sushi platter from Sho-ya

Sho-ya is a Korean owned sushi place in Strathfield. They offer *all sushi $3 per plate* everyday! Situated at Strathfield Blvd.

For more information about any of the places in this post please visit the respective websites.

http://www.tontontakeaway.com.au/

http://www.azuma.com.au/

http://www.lowenbrau.com.au/

http://www.luneburger.com.au/

http://www.bagelhouse.com.au/

http://www.lindt.com.au/1/4.asp

Bagel House, Sydney

As some of you might know, Organic girl and I have this thing for bagels. Well more llike Organic girl had this thing and she passed that thing to me (I'd never had a bagel before meeting her!) You might also know that because of this thing we have for bagels, we've done some crazy stuff. Well it was around then that Lil Miss Luv2shop told us about the bagel house, and now - at long last - we can say we've been to the Bagel House. 

We were actually expecting a cafe but it turned out to be in the foodcourt but that's okay. There were heaps of choices, from plain to sweet to savoury, there were even mini bagels!

 

Mini Bagels

We all opted for the savoury bagelss as it was lunchtime and we were all hungry. 

Club Bagelwich $7.50 (chicken, bacon, swiss cheese, tomato, mayo, lettuce)

Classic Salmon Gourmet Bagel $8.50 (smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, red onion, lettuce)

Chicken and avocado gourmet bagel $8.50 (smoked chicken, avocado, mushroom, cheese)

I was sort of disappointed when I unwrapped my Chicken and avocado bagel, mines looked pathetic next to the other two. But I quickly forgot this as the warm, inviting smell of bagel & chicken wafted towards me, telling me to stop taking pics and hurry up and eat it!

The outside was nice and crispy, the inside nice and soft (these were definitely softer than the ones I made). Chicken and avocado were made to be together and I love mushroom and cheese as well! They toast your bagel right after you order it so the whole thing is nice and warm andvery fresh tasting. 

I'm definitely going there again. I think I might even get out of the house earlier one day and try a breakfast bagel before going to uni. 

Bagel House Sydney Central Plaza

Sydney Central Plaza food court

(beneath Myer, opposite McDonalds)

Pitt St Mall

Sydney

for contact details, trading hours and other locations, please vist the Bagel House website!

Breadtop, Burwood

YAY! A new breadtop has opened! One night my mum came home with a bag of breadtop stuff. There was a loaf of cheesy bread (it was unbelievably good!), a swiss roll, a slice of cheesecake and a tripe choc mousse.

Triple choc mousse

I'd had this one before and I didn't find it that great, it wasn't that great this time round either. The white choc on the top tasted funny and the whole thing was just too sweet for my liking. But it is nice to look at.

Cheesecake

I'd completely forgotten how much I liked breadtop's cheesecakes!! I would always buy it when Breadtop first came around but I had somehow forgotten about it. Well I won't forget again. Breadtop's cheesecake isn't very strong but you can still definitely taste the cheese. It's also really light and fluffy, I think if I had a whole cheesecake in front of me I'd be able to finish the whole thing myself.

That was the first time I'd had the cheese bread loaf. I wasn't expecting much out of it, being a bread loaf and all so I didn't take a picture of it but it was SO GOOD. The loaf was soft and fluffy, and the whole loaf was smelling of cheese. The were bits of browned cheese on the top of the loaf but the inside was even better. There were CHEESE SWIRLS throughout the loaf and I ended up eating THE WHOLE LOAF OD BREAD myself. I just sat there ripping chucks of bread and eating eating eating then suddenly the whole loaf is gone!

I've yet to actually see the new breadtop for myself but I hear they did a 85c thing and they've got drinks and a dining area now. YAY for new breadtop!

Bagels

GOOD GRIEF I've had sooo much food lately I dunno where to start. I think I'll just start from some of the more recent things and work backwards. I actually made a list of all the places/things I need to blog about and WOW there's stuff dating back to when I was in Melbourne which was Feb! LOL

So anyway organic girl and I were really craving bagels on day and so we went to Bondi Junction, planning to try out the Great Bagel and Coffe Co. but IT WASN'T THERE!! Hahaha we went crazy and made a REALLY HUGE DEAL out of it, involving calling someone with internet access up and googling all sorts of things for us - but to no avail =[

We ended up eating at Laurent but our bagel cravings weren't satisfied. So last night I stayed up until 1.30am making bagels! I used Nigella's receipe that NQN blogged about before and I was pleasantly surprised because bagel's don't have any lactose-y ingredients! =] So this is a great recipe for anyone lactose-intolerant!! 

I got to use the dough attachment of my electric mixer for the first time and boy was it coooooool! I've kneaded dough by hand before and boy does the dough attachment save time! There was quite a lot of the mixture though and at one point I heard a *crack* and I got really scared that the mixer broke! Haha, don't worry, rest assured it's still working fine! 

I didn't have much to work with though so I only made plain bagels.

This morning I sliced them in half and put them under the grill then slathered on the philly. I also put some homemade smoked salmon spread that organic girl gave me, along with it went a bit of lettuce and some smoked trout.  Smoked salmon was ideal except it's more expensive and I like smoked trout too so meh~

My bagels that now look more like burgers!

Hehehhee they were yummy, I had one for breakfast today and two for lunch! I also made some 'mini' bagels for my friends to try, they were so cute! =]  

bagel fillings

So my homemade bagels tempered our cravings for bagels slightly... but don't worry, the receipe makes 15 bagels so I've got plenty more for my breakfast and lunch tomorrow! We're gonna do Yala spreads tomorrow *woooot*