Merry Xmas..

Look at our own christmas present that we've got for ourselves in the kitchen. Weee.. it's KitchenAid mixer and we've also bought the ice-cream mixer for it as well! Lots of heavy duty baking and ice-cream making is coming up! Stay tuned! :D

A Lego advertisement that I saw in Town Hall station. How cute is that? Have you done your last minute christmas shopping? Last few hours more to catch up. Merry Christmas everyone!

Four Ate Five..

The best thing about Surry Hills, you'll get to have nice breakfast in one of the cafes around that area. I love trying out new places for nice hot brekky. When a friend from Melb came over to visit, we went to try out Four Ate Five. Lazy weekend, great company with nice weather and a long queue to get a table. 

Small and cosy cafe to enjoy your breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Mmmm.. thick hot chocolate, it was really good! Thick, creamy, chocolatey and slightly bitter. Just the way I like it.

 For Jen, he tried the barramundi burger with homemade chips. The fish was so fresh and nicely grilled. I love the chips. Can't help it to sneak more from his plate.

I had the three cheeses meetballs with rockets and sourdough toast. Strong flavours, bit of tomato soury taste with the meatballs and love the combination with the rockets. 

My friend had spinach omelette on the specials that day. Very healthy choice for a morning breakfast. Light and fluffy omelette with full on ingredients. We all agreed that the bread was really good. Yum! It was definately jam packed during the morning weekends. But it's definately a place to hunt for some good food and coffee. 

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 485 Crown Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Zhu Mama Taiwanese Restaurant..

There's a bit of Taiwan fever among my friends at the moment. I've been looking at different sorts of yummylicious taiwanese food photos lately. Well there's one taiwanese shop at Chinatown called Zhu Mama that I went to try out with sissy. We've only ordered for some snacks, so I'm definately going back again to check out on other items.

Sis had the vermicelli soup, it tasted bit different from the ones that I've tried before. Nevertheless, it was really nice, warm and comforting soup to have.

I've also ordered the warm soya bean drink. 

And also xiao long bao. The moment you bite into the bun, the soup inside the bun just flowed out gradually. The skin was fairly thicker than usual. Would have been better if it's thinner and smoother.  Very looking forward to go Taiwan to have a feast! Anyways I'm getting hungry now.

Ratings: 6/10

Address: Shop1-4, 86-88 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic..

Last Saturday, I've attended Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic hosted by Suze and Helen at Moore Park. Funny thing was that it took me a while to find the crowd cause I didn't know anyone and the whole park is huge. Didn't have any numbers to call and I don't have twitter. Time to get one! Well it was my very first time to join in a bloggers' event. I have to admit that I was kind of nervous when I just arrived. Thankfully that everyone was really welcoming and friendly. It was real fun meeting up with some of the bloggers that I'm actively following. It was a shame that I didn't take many photos during the picnic. My bad! But there were lots of food, from savoury to sweets. From the very popular ribs that I didn't get my hands on by Billy to the awesomely colourful macaron christmas tree by Cleony.

This is only part of it. Believe it or not!

Food bloggers, picnic rugs, food, cameras and one common language.

Food from east to west. I guess my curry puff was not enough for the day. Lol.

The cute strawberry santas by Ayana and lovely xmas tree. 

Love the cheesebread from Tammi.

Huge plate of white chocolate wontons by John.

 Absolutely a piece of art there by Cleony. Everyone was so excited to see the macaron tower. Sharing the christmas love.

I've tried the raspberry one and it was thumbs up! Great effort.

I was also extra lucky to get pick on to join in the bloggers olympics event, go Tinsel Twos with Rhonda, Joshua and Minh!  Next up was kris kringle event which had a little twist to it. We got the chance to steal someone else's unwrapped present. It was great fun and there were a few hot items going around on and on. I've received a cute set of cupcakes themed envelopes.

p's Thanks heaps to Helen and Suze for organising the event. It was great fun and meeting both of them in person. It was really nice meeting up with Monica in real person and had a nice chat. . Thanks Sneh for the company during our bus ride, if not I'm sure I'll be lost somewhere in the woods. :)  The very first person that was introduced to me was Mel. What a coincidence. Hope to see everyone again!

Masterchef Live Event..

After watching two series of Masterchef and one series of Junior Masterchef, I'm definately one that is totally hooked by the show. The love, passion and talent in food by the contestants are just admiring. Following the series, and looking at the growth of the contestants in the show is just amazing. I felt so empty after the show ended. It also encouraged me to venture more into cooking and baking. I've attempted the black forest cake before and it turned out unsuccesfully. *sad* Oh and I'm a huge fan of Marion and Adam in series 2. So I saw this advertisement through Ticketek that they are organising a Masterchef live event in Sydney and off I bought the tickets. Can't wait and so exciting!

It was at Moore Park which is at the other side of the bridge, it was an early start for the day. Off we go!

 Legendary logo at the main entrance.

 Lots of different stalls with samples and great products for sale.

 The one hour live theatre show hosted by Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris had hands-on selected audiences to the stage to cook, masterchef class, insights of the show, fun, fun and more fun!

 Guests on the show were Donna Hay, Adam and Marion! They are looking great and best of all, Adam's restaurant is opening in April 2011. How exciting news is that?!

Cooking demos, pressure tests by the audiences and judging time. It was absolutely great fun and I've enjoyed the whole show.

 Anna Gare at one of the demonstration theatre.

 Proud sponsor of the show, Coles had a huge stand there and ex-contestants, Courtney, Alvin and Jimmy were there to demonstrate cooking and they tried really hard to answer all the audiences' questions.

 Other than that, there were lots of fresh products for sale and samples to try.

Organic chips. 

 Fresh coffee beans.

Varieties of fresh breads.

Chocolate dipped strawberries. They looked gorgeous and mouth-watering.

 More cooking skills and tips to share by the celebrity chefs.

 Signing event by the three judges.

 Kylie Kwong sharing her thoughts.

 Hands-on cupcake decorating demostration.

 There's a junior masterchef stand for the kids as well.

 For lunch we had Charlie & co wagyu burger for $10. Yum! I'm not a fan of beetroot, but it was really delicious and I didn't taste the strong beetroot flavour at all.

 And chilli sausage roll for $8.

 I'm definately going to their stall at Westfield to eat that again. *slurps*

 More stands outside the Royal Hall of Industries.

 Sunbeam sponsor stand with hands-on cooking demonstrations by Skye Craig.

 Oh I met Alvin in real person!

 Adriano Zumbo, the legendary pastry chef in the show, was giving out tips in piping skills when baking.

He was telling us that you just need to practice and practice to master the skills and getting the consistency that you want.

Lastly a Merry Christmas tree with macarons for you. I really think that the event was really good, letting the audiences getting up close with the chefs behind the screen, sharing the basic skills and tips in cooking and baking, encouraging people to know more about food and cooking, exposing the audiences with the real effort that is given by the well known chefs in real person, and to know more about different food products and cooking utensils. It was really an awesome festival of cooking event and I had lots of fun!