Oh, how I love a kitchen gadget. Really. So, to add to to the electric pressure cooker, the airfryer, and the automatic ice cream maker, I present: the Philips Automatic Pasta Maker. I’m still obsessed with it after a month. So far, I’ve added some kale juice to make green pasta (as in the video) and some carrot juice (which made the papardelle more yellow than orange).
So far, I’ve had mostly hits, and some near-misses. The spaghetti was delicate and lovely. The papardelle was a bit thick and too al dente. Plus, the papardelle noodles fell apart during cooking, and didn’t retain their length. I thought the first batch of penne I made (though thrilled with the shape) was also too thick and hard, but the next batch of penne I made with more pasta flour and less semolina with a bit of xantham gum just in case, to keep it together, was nicer.
Angel hair pasta was a hit, and I was surprised how delicate it was. I’m still to try the dumpling wrappers and lasagna sheets but I will, and will report back.
I was very excited to make Asian noodles. Making the rice noodles, made with rice flour and tapioca flour, was my first problem! I didn’t trust the recipe and put too much liquid into it and had to make a new batch. Which turned out just fine. I boiled them briefly and fried them in XO sauce and they were good (but needed more sauce).
Then, I made soba noodles from buckwheat flour. Served with soba sauce, as bought in an Asian grocery store, with some wasabi and green onions, the only thing that was missing was some nori (dried seaweed). I was really proud of these. They were delicious, and the homemade quality of the noodles really shone. Next I’ll try ramen, though the recipe I found on the web requires an ingredient, kansui, a sort of lye, which might be hard to track down.
Weirdly, though these things have been around for a while, I’m finding it really hard to find recipes and tips on how to use it in the best way. So, I’ll experiment with flours and liquid proportions and report back. One person suggested resting the dough longer (by turning off the machine) but my machine doesn’t seem to like that. Anyways, I’ll report on recipes and more tips and hints as I find them, so it might help someone like me who’s searching for advice.
In the meantime, I’m very happy with it. It’s not small, but not humungous. It isn’t hard to clean at all. It makes the pasta so quickly, it’s amazing. I am tempted to buy the shell/paccheri die to try. Also, I grabbed a great bargain I wanted the most expensive of the models, which had the most dies (Fettuccine, Spaghetti, Penne, Pappardelle, Lasagne, Ravioli) and an automatic scale, which sounds essential (as the proportion needs to be just right). New it seems to cost $439 here in Australia, and on sale down to $400 or even $380. But I found one on eBay, used apparently only three times, and I won the bid for $180 plus $10 postage (surprisingly cheap for such a heavy thing). The only thing I like more than a kitchen gadget is a bargain!
Sometimes you pass by places because they just seem too easy to get to! Nudge is a cafe that I pass all the time on my way to Aldi or Vintage Cellars or the discount pharmacy in Oxford Village Square, and I’ve never stopped by. It’s a pretty casual stop off, not meant for a long meal. They seem to do a healthy trade.
This unusual day I was finishing my volunteer shift at GetUp! and was hankering for a treat before I headed home to give a reiki treatment. Nudge beckoned, and seemed an easy option. Plus, they offer a special for a bacon and egg roll, and a coffee, and how can I resist that?
My coffee had coffee art. Much appreciated. The atmosphere was light and cheery. The service was pleasant. And indeed, my bacon and egg roll was tasty. Just what I wanted. $8 for the combo coffee and bacon and egg roll, and I could have also swapped out the roll for a ham and cheese croissant. Perhaps I’ll try that next.
We usually try to come early to the fish market, and at breakfast time, I really don’t feel like hoeing into the fish and chips. So, Blackwattle Deli is really the only choice. Good thing they’re good!
They have a small selection of pastries, but we usually go for their breakfast special of a coffee (I thought the latte art was rather whimsical) and a toasted sandwich (I think it was $10 for the both). This time, we got one with kimchi and smoked wagyu beef and they left it in the sandwich press a little long and it was molten hot. But also crispy and delicious. It also had provolone cheese and japanese mayo. Yum.
When I mentioned to 
Wow. Currently a 4.6 out of 5 rating on Zomato. That’s ridiculously high. I was impressed but this tells me something about their broad appeal.
I love Asian food, and I’m often intrigued by Asian fusion food, so to serve up unpretentious weird mixtures of fusion food, in a relaxed atmosphere, is pretty fun. The only nod to the Asian menu in the decor are somewhat tacky little lanterns tied on to the lamps, but otherwise, it looks like the place is unrenovated from whatever it was before.
The main dishes on offer are burgers, with the steamed buns instead of a hamburger bun, and bao, or the flat steamed buns filled with yummy things.
The french fries with a bit of onion and Japanese curry was less successful. I love Japanese curry but this was more of the idea of it without much flavour.
But all in all: a very amusing place, and I can see why it’s popular. With so much competition on King Street, and so many places that come and go, good on you, Belly Bao.
I don’t know it took me so long to try out Sticky Fingers, just a block back from Oxford Street along the strip. It’s super close to where I live, and I’d heard rumours it was good. Now I’ve managed to get there twice this year, which is pretty regular for me!
I like the feel of the place. It’s cozy. Got a great seat the first time with the window open behind me; the next time, the sun was too hot through the glass.
I like the menu with the emphasis on sticky sauces, dishes with an Asian influence or something that could be dastardly unhealthy.
The latest time there, I tried the nasi goreng for breakfast, with a very spicy sauce on the side, and I really liked it, particularly with the bits of fried pork rind on top (photo at the top of the post!).
OK. Strike me dead.
Except of course that EVERY single time as an adult that I’ve been to McDonald’s, I expect it to taste like a childhood treat, like innocence, like deep-fried capitalism … and instead, it is disappointing.
Not that this burger was disappointing. In fact, the crisp chicken patty, tasting like faux chicken, with a crispy hashbrown on top (always a favourite), and then with bacon and BBQ sauce, the egg and cheese slice barely noticeable: it was kind of amazing. And tasty. And I felt full of fat and carbs and calories for the entire rest of the day, and while I don’t need to EVER do that again, I’m glad I tried it.
In the meantime, that particular Macca’s, with the construction of the light rail still outside it, and in its location on George Street across from the cinemas. It was particularly grim.
It’s great to see a restaurant doing so well, and a vegetarian restaurant doing so well in particular (eating less meat is good for the planet).
On a Monday night, Yulli’s was pretty much packed. I’m surprised I haven’t blogged about it before, as I’ve eaten a number of times here (and have a number of vegetarian friends).
What I’d forgotten was that Yulli’s is also a brewery, and serving up local beer. I love that idea. So much I had to try a tasting paddle. Some flavours I liked more, and some less, but I support the venture! In the meantime, the food was awesome.
Some of the dishes were tasty and interesting, as in: how are they going to make a vegetarian version of a dish that usually has meat in it. And other dishes were simply super delicious and I forgot about any rules or categories.
The Thai money bags were tasty. The san choy bao was OK, perhaps a weaker dish of the night. The stuffed zucchini flower was amazing.
A sort of mushroom lasagna with zucchini noodles on top was amazing: rich and tasty with a lot of different textures. I also really liked the steamed buns with jackfruit.
