Arirang

Last Saturday, Matt and I were bored and the weather was freezing. I couldn't think of where to have dinner, then it striked me that I had always wanted to try Arirang, Korean BBQ.

So I got their number from the web, and made a booking for 2. When we got there, we could smell the bbq, smelled divine and I warned Matt that we would get very very smelly haha

We were seated on the first floor where no one was cooking, so Matt got very concerned if we would be the only table that was going to cook, i told him "I dont care! ME gonna cook!". he just laughed and then I realised he was a Korean BBQ virgin! Hahaha lucky he has me now, take him to try different cuisines. Matt is a pretty conversative eater, not very adventurest especially when it comes to Asian delecacies like chicken feet, 'fatt choy' (hair looking vegetables), tofu and etc.

We ordered a normal banquet and a seafood banquet, with the attempt to try different food on their menu.

Normal Banquet $28.50 per person

entree

A delectable combination of:

Honey Chicken
lean skinless chicken pieces battered + pan-fried till golden in a honey soy sayce. Absolutely heaven!

Mandu
seasoned pork and vegetables dumplings fried to perfection. served with a soy dipping sauce.

main course
A combination platter of our finest BBQ meats including:

Duk Bulgogi
lean chicken fillets, marinated in our sweet soy sauce.

Bulgogi
fine slices of lean beef, marinated in our sweet soy sauce.

Deaji Bulgogi
finely sliced belly pork marinated in our hot chilli sauce.

Main meals are served with rice, miso soup, namul [seasoned vegetables], kimchi, dipping sauces and lettuce leaves. Cook the meat over the charcoal grill, place the meat, rice + dipping sauce in a lettuce leaf and consume with delight!

seafood banquet -$33.50 per person

entree
A delectable combination of:

Honey Chicken
lean skinless chicken pieces battered + pan-fried till golden in a honey soy sayce. Absolutely heaven!

Mandu
seasoned pork and vegetables dumplings fried to perfection. served with a soy dipping sauce.

main course

A combination platter of our finest seafood including The freshest fruits of the sea: chilli squid,scallops, mussels + king prawns served with our special tangy dipping sauce. Main meals are served with rice, miso soup, namul [seasoned vegetables], kimchi, dipping sauces and lettuce leaves. Cook the meat over the charcoal grill, place the meat, rice + dipping sauce in a lettuce leaf and consume with delight!

To be honest, I prefer the normal banquet compare to the seafood one because the marinated taste so good! Matt doesn't eat pork but he loved the pork they served. I like the pork and beef. The honey chicken was so yummy! We love them, and I gave Matt an extra piece because he was starving haha... I must learn how to make that chicken. The chicken is not like those honey chicken you get from those Chinese rice stall that is covered with batter. Those side dishes like the pickled vege and potatoes were yummy too, they served this plate of cucumber, they weren't pickle cucumber, just normal cooked cucumber, tasted so yummy. Matt does not eat cucumber very often, he doesn't like the slippery texture, but he liked this particular cucumber. :p

We had 2 drinks each and Matt had a coffee after his meal, the total bill was $88.00. I think it is pretty ok. Not cheap, but we felt that it was worth it. Good food and service. Just hope that the portion can be bigger.

Matt had fun eating and cooking at the same time.. hahaha. In the end, both came out smelling each other and commented how divine we smelled.

Apricot Yogurt Cake

I have lots of yogurt left from making the non-bake yogurt cake. So I found a recipe online to bake a fruity yogurt cake. I chose this Apricot Yogurt Cake because I thought the sour apricot will make the cake quite interesting and the feedback on the recipe were great.

I made a mistake while baking this cake, so the outcome wasn't as good as I have expected but definitely edible and not sweet AT ALL.

It will be a great dessert for my aunt and she is diabetic.

Recipe as follow:

300g canned apricot halves, drained, sliced
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups self-raising flour
175g Apricot yogurt

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease base and sides of a 6cm-deep, 20cm (base) springform cake pan. Line with baking paper. Pat apricot dry with paper towel.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, caster sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in flour and 1 tub of yoghurt until well combined.


Spoon half the cake mixture into prepared pan. Smooth surface. Top with apricot. Spoon remaining mixture over apricot. Smooth surface.


Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand cake for 5 minutes in pan.

Remove from pan.

Place on wire rack to cool.

Too pretty to be eaten

I ordered some cupcakes from here for my father for Father's Day gift. Ordered 2 dozens in total, 1 for my father and 1 for my nephew. Alice was very nice, she took some pictures and emailed them to me. The cupcakes are so pweeeettttyyyyy.....

Chilled orange Yogurt Cake

This cake is by far my favourite, it is very light, healthy (no flour, no cheese), appetising and super yummy!

I will post the recipe when I have time :p

Sorry, I know the photo quality is pretty bad ><

Buttered Prawns

I cooked buter prawns over the Foundation Day weekend. I love prawns and especially buttered prawns. I found the recipe from Cooking Momster, I followed the recipe and the prawns turned out fantastic. It wasn't difficult at all to be honest, just a little patience is all you need when cooking the butter and milk together. Everyone said the prawns were yummy!

This is what it looks like when you mix the milk and butter together. Becareful, this mixture get burned easily, so keep the heat low and keep stirring.

This picture is taken from Cooking Momster, I forgot to take a picture of my buttered prawns, but they look the same (I swear!).

Recipe is as follow, again, the recipe is taken from Cooking Momster.

Ingredients :

500gm fresh water prawns (I used frozen king prawns, I don't know what fresh water prawns are ><)

1 tbsp corn flour

3 tbsp butter

1/2 can evaporated milk

2 sprigs curry leaves (I used fresh curry leaves from the garden)

1 tsp chopped chilli padi (I used normal chilli, the super hot ones from my aunt's garden)

1 tsp sugar

Method :

1. Coat the prawns with cornflour.In a pan of hot oil, stir fried the prawns till it turned orange colour. Dish up and set aside.

2. Melt butter in a pan. Pour in the evaporated milk.

3. Stir fry at low heat till it dry up and formed granules.

4. Then add in sugar,curry leaves and chilli padi and fry till fragrant.

5. Add in prawns and mixed well.

Banana Cake - AGAIN

Matt loves banana cake. He asked if I can bake it again, so here it is. I am getting sick of baking banana cake now, I can mix everything and put it into the oven in less than 20 mins.

I will try some non-bake cheese cake tomorrow, that's if I can get a big round baking dish tomorrow.

Wish me luck ;)