Dim Sim

I agree about Brunetti being too busy and all, I can't think of other places that do mainly dessert and have seating. Apart from baking bread most bakeries do have a small range of sweets, Baker D'chirico in Fitzroy Street, St kilda, Babka in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Filou's in Lygon st. and those lovely egg tarts in chinese bakeries, yum. now about that place on Lygon street, Koko Black Chocolate, 167 Lygon street, Carlton( shin , I think it is quite new, as I only discovered it the otherday, it is on the same side as readings but toward the city end, next to Casa Del Gelato, as I don't head down that end of Lygon very often,so I am not too sure how long the place has been there) , this place is full of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, all sort of chocolate at the counter, oh they also do chocolate dessert to order, I suppose one should drinks hot chocolate with the dessert, it is dangerous as I am on my chocolate phase at the moment. I should stay clear of this place.

Thanks, do you like the look of the rendeng in the photos too ?

brunetti, an Italian pasticceria, you can sit down and read paper and drink coffee, eat all the cakes and gelati, Always busy, 198 Faraday St., Carlton, although there are 2 others around inner Melbourne, but this one is the big mama of them all, in fact if you spend sometimes in Carlton there are other cake shops there too , there is this one big chocolate place on Lygon Street I can remember the name( someone can help me out here, Shin where are you ? with all your time spent at Readings you might know the place I am talking about ) . If you can get hold of a copy of Foodies' Guide to Melbourne by Allan Campion & Michele Curtis , it has got all type of food places to visit.

Recipe, please! ←

here is one I prepared earlier, not as good as the roti canai stalls across Malaysia, but better than anything you can get in the supermarket here (Melbourne, Australia).

That is my favourite little deli at the Queen Victoria market. They sell a wonderful half goats milk, half sheeps milk feta cheese. It's just bliss for the senses. ← yes, wonderful selections of cheese, I will check out the feta, my favourite is woodside cheese wrights Edith's cheese , it is a goat milk cheese, I just love it. went there this morning and bought the king Island triple cream, yum. ooophs sorry back to the aussie things, some sort of Kangaroo or emu smallgoods, is there such a thing like kangaroo salami or smoked kangaroo, I know The Chicken Pantry at the Vic market sells emu sausages, as well as crocodile, emu, kangaroo, at one stage possum too. they have a big mural at the stall, which has all sorts of animals on it, I remember asking Janine the owner what other types of meat she sells, and she pointed at the mural, and replied,' all the animals you can see'. and she wasn't joking !

Burnt fig jam by Maggie beer, www.maggiebeer.com.au ,from memory there is a store in the Queen Victoria market in Melbourne called curd and whey, they sell gift size jars of mixed bush spices and herbs.

yes, I have been to Tres Tacos a number of times, some nights I feel like having Australian Mexican food like Taco, enchiladas, frijoles ( in fact you can order something called "stacked ehchiladas" on the menu and you get all of those things on one plate, a bit like the local chinese combination , you get a fried egg on top too, I did say Australian Mexican ) I live within walking distance so it is convinient for me to walk there, I won't travel across town for it though, come to think of it I did have some nice tamales there once but there are not always on the menu. The Ascot Vale store stocks things like chipotle in adobo sauce, masa flour, and the Mexican chocolate, which I used to travel to Aztec for, I remember the good old days when we used to have Daimaru, I used to be able to get hominy there too.

Just been to 320 Ascot Vale Rd., it was great, though the range is not as big as casa iberica , they stock a lot more Mexican products, and it is only 5 minutes away, it is a pity I didn't find out earlier( been driving pass there for years , wonder how I could have missed it) now they got a big for sale sign on the window the prople there are really friendly too. thank you Piazzola.

hi all, interesting forum here, now I know why I never be able to get my prawn taste like the one in my local chinese take away, in Australia we are able to buy prawn already shelled ( which we refered to as prawn cutlet) I remember I bought some once and it has a weired firm and slightly slippery feel to it, and when I cooked them ( in a clay pan , with lots ofolive oil , garlic and parsley ) it has an amazing firm and springy texture that I never encountered with any of the prawns that I ever cooked , taste a little different to the prawn that I shelled myself, I wondered if the prawns that I bought might already been treated with either borax or baking soda. If so, is there any chance that if it is at all possible to give soda or borax treatment to prawns still in their shell ?

What ! There is no mention of smoked meat and pickle ?

I wonder if it has something to do with the springy bouncy toothsome texture that is well liked by the chinese, or to act like vitamin c or ascorbic acid in bread making which tighten the dough and acts as an astringent . I have been looking at various cookbooks but non of them explains its function.

let's see, so far I made dal, Pea and ham soup, ham hock and lentil soup. My mum's chicken ginger and dried mushroom soup with long life noodle. I like making the whole leg of lamb (arabic style) with spices and yoghurt than roast it in a oven bag (I wish I discovered this sooner), I enjoyed a slow roast pork belly ( thanks to Gary Rhodes) lots of mesh , curry of all sorts, coq au vin, beef bourguinonne, lasagne, beef and guisness and meshed potato (any leftover I tend to turn it into a cottage pie with a nice potato crust. I like congee, But tend to go to Supper Inn in china town to have it. I have been toying with the idea of making cassoulet again, it has been a few years since I made my last one ( there seemed to be a lot of talk on this subject here) I will put duck confit in mine this time. I think it is time to read the 2 Fat Ladies and Gary Rhodes' New British Classics. oh did I mention chocolate ?

475 Spencer Street, W Melbourne tel:9329 5111 The dinning menu is pretty good too.

You should try Hotel Spencer, Mon & tues Night special, I think it is $11.00 good value, I like. their beef and guiness pie is pretty good too.

you will find most if not all the restaurants mentioned on the site are pubs, you problably won't find chicken parma in most restaurants, except pubs (usually comes with chips or fries for our North Amercan friends) or some noisy family restaurants, take away places, in general it is on the same par as fish and chips, anyplace that has a deep fryer and does chips and schnizels (and together with places that do pasta with the good O' tomato sauce, we call it Napoli sauce) you are more likely to find parmas. they are a comfort food for me , something I am used to and as I mentioned earlier they usually come with chips, with lots of beer to wash them all down, what more can you ask for ?

wouldn't it split after defrosting ? like all egg sauces, mayonaise and custard and so forth. mmmmmmmmmmmm... may be a little bit of corn flour as a thickener might help, Just wondering too, I want to know too. anyone ?

Laucke Flour, perhaps.

Your could try Health food store, in Melbourne some health food shops sell different variaties of flour :rye , spelt etc, I have use Four Leaf Flour they are quite good, you can find out where you can get it from www.fourleafmilling.com , otherwise you can try begging your local bakery, they nomally get 25kg bags. I find they are far superior then anything you can buy at local supermarket. goodluck in finding , what sort of bread are you intending to make ?

Hi kanga,A while ago I tried a recipe from David Thomson"s Thai Food; sweet crispy pork( if you have the book, it is on Page 398) and it was deilicious, a few steps of cooking process involved, first steam the belly with bone attached, then deep fry, after that coat in a sticky calamelised sauce made of palm sugar, fish sauce, oyster sauce and among other goodie. have it with green papaya salad which he suggested. pity I didn't make enough. I never had the Fenix version, but I think the idea behind it sounds simular.

Hi Shin, how exciting buying a new oven, a few things to consider , whether you want a seperate oven and stove top, if space permits I would opt for a wall oven, saves me from bending over, and I can keep an eye on how things are cooking in the oven, I changed my stove about 5 year ago, I wanted a wok burner and a wider stove top area, so I can have a few things on the go at the same time, so I changed from 6oomm width to 900mm (with the oven underneath), I wish I realized then what I realize now is that, the configuration didn't actually work for me, as I have 5 burners now, with the wok burner right in the middle, so when I use a wok, I basically can't use the other 4 burners. as far as the oven is concerned, you have to workout, what you will be using it for ( I am greedy, I want a big one, I want to be able to roast a little piglet, and big turkey in it,it has a rotisserie, mind you, but in the 5 years I have this oven, I haven't even roasting anything in it. except 2 or 3 cakes and a few cookies) I like my old 600 mm Westinghouse better, it is smaller and heat up faster, and more even (both are gas),I find my Panasonic microwave/convection oven useful, I use the convection mode for most oven cooking. A few things worth considering, of course , gas or electric ( beware some ovens are 3 phase, which means you will need to rewire and it can be quite costly) most European appliances have grill build inside the roof of oven, which may or may not suit you, fan force is more even, but it tends to dry out cakes,I prefer a good gas oven with even heat, self cleaning catalytic surface etc............ Aga is good, you can connect it to hot water and heating, but not for Melbourne city living, country house in the snowy mountains perhaps, as PCL pointed out very very expensive, and heavy. but apparently once heated very cheap to run. if you are looking for a rangehood, I strongly recommand Qasair brand with twin fans, especially if you do a lot of wok cooking, laksa, curry and the like. good luck .

you might find this useful, it is stiuated in a suburb called Bentleigh SE of Melbourne, the shop USA Foods, tel: 95765655, they have a website as well, www.usafoods.com.au yes, they have canned pumpkin puree

you could try Suzuran Japan Food, 1025-1027 Burke Road, Camberwell, Tel:9882 2349, they are one of the bigger Japanese food store, if they don't stock them it will be quite likely they know where to obtain them, I have seen them in plastic sausage shape around the place but I can't actually remember where, sorry. What are you going to use it for, Sukiyaki ?

Pick up a copy of Classic Cooking with Cola-cola from a secondhand book shop (more out of curiousity than actually gastronomical value), it has lots of recipes, including chicken and shrimp jambalaya, Cantonese fried chicken( which uses Sprite), lots of breads and cookies too. I remember watching Nigella Lawson cooked a ham and coke thing. has anyone done any interesting food with Coke ?

sorry for the lateness of this, here is my recipe Chicken, sausage and prawn gumbo Ingredients 1 chicken about 2 kg 1 cup peanut oil 1 cup all purpose (plain) flour 3 onions, chopped into fine cubes 2 green bell peppers, chopped into fine cubes 3 stalks of celery, chopped into fine cubes 1 small bunch of scallions, sliced into fine rings 1 small thai (scud) chilli or as hot as you like it, chopped 6-7 sprigs fresh thyme 4-5 bay leaves 350 g (about 11 oz)okra sliced into 1/2 in slices, pan fried till slightly caramelised 500-700 g ( about 1 lb )smoked spicy sausages, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices, fry till crisp and lightly coloured 1 head garlic, peeled and crushed 2-3 cups of chopped tomatoes (I used tinned Italian tomatoes) 2 hungarian green peppers, chopped into fine cubes 600 g (about 1 lb) of prawns, peeled and reserve the shell for stock salt and pepper to season Method Put chicken in a pot just big enough for 2 lit (2 quart) of water to cover the chicken (if you can add some big chunks of celery, carrot, onion, bayleaves and peppercorn) bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. remove the chicken to cool down, then shred in big pieces, put aside. put prawn shells in a small saucepan, add about 2 cups of water to cover, simmer for 5 minutes then strain and reserve the stock. Put the chopped onions, bell peppers, scallions and celery together into a large bowl. In a thick bottom pot start making the roux with oil and flour till dark brown, stir constantly, and be very careful not to get any of this on your skin, once you get to the desired colour, throw in all the chopped vegetables in the bowl. (your kitchen should fill with the most amazing aroma by now ) stir very quickly to coat the vegetables with the roux to cool it down from colouring further, cook till vegetables are soft. add in the chicken and prawn stock ( you can reserve 2 cup of the stock to check the thickness, and to adjust the consistency by adding more later). Add okra, bayleaves, thyme, bring to simmer for about 40 minutes, add garlic, hungarian peppers,thai chilli and tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes, add the sausages, the shredded chicken and simmer very gently for about 5- 10 minutes, add prawns and simmer till cook through about 2-3 minutes, check seasoning , serve with rice and lots of chopped parsley. I have sent some shots on page 7 of this thread.