Finally, I created a facebook page for The Wifey’s Corner here. Please kindly drop by and stay connected to us through our facebook page as well 🙂
Aside from that, a little update on what’s happening with us lately. We have been so occupied with planning for coming trip, which is to Japan. It will be our very first time visiting Japan and I feel really overwhelmed with planning for itinerary, accommodation, and related activities. Anyhow, rest assured I am not abandoning this blog, another post should be coming up this weekend 🙂
I wish you all a blessed mid-week, Friday is almost here woohooo!
Another cafe that we have often passed in these past couple of years and always have a big line outside. We even tried to go there before and got turned off because of the wait. But we made it there few weeks ago, went there before 10 am to avoid the brunch peak hours on Saturday.
Located in the heart of Concord West and very close to its train station, this little cafe often digs our curiosity. It seems they are serving big breakfast type of meals, pancakes and drinks. And yet, people always flock in here even after years it opened its door. A quick search on this place shows numerous pictures of huge platter of big breakfast on tiered settings. Almost like how they serve high tea, but instead of tiny elegant plates, they use a massive wooden board platters.
And of course we have to order the breakfast platter, here are the pictures of what we had:
The breakfast platter for 2, we upgraded the waffle to pancake with ice cream for an extra $2 per person
And the verdict…
We feel Platform Eighty Two is a little overrated in term of queuing. It is not exactly cheap brunch, but don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of food served for 2 people. Eggs are served in three ways (scrambled, sunny side up, and poached). Generous amount of button mushroom, bacon and salami. Love the avocado with feta cheese and hash browns 🙂 No regret on upgrading the dessert to pancake, very delicious! I feel this is a nice place for get together with few people, it is fun, and very instagram-able, right? But make sure to make a reservation ahead if you are coming in groups, just to be sure you will get a table with no long wait. Also, thumbs up for the coffee, very smooth!
Pumpkin is one ingredient that I never ever bought or cooked with, let alone baked with 😛 I enjoy pumpkin soup every now and then, or have had mashed pumpkin with my meal in restaurants. But that is all my encounter with pumpkin, really. Then I watched a video on making pumpkin baked cheesecake the other day and my curiosity prompted me to try it out. Perhaps I was thinking by adding pumpkin, the cheesecake would be healthier. I have to say the recipe does not disappoint, in fact you can hardly taste the pumpkin at all if you mashed them really fine. It taste just like a baked cheesecake, except maybe more orange in colour.
Anyway, here are the ingredients as per original video:
200 grams Kabocha squash/pumpkin, net weight after mashed
60 grams granulated sugar
200 grams cream cheese(room temperature)
100 grams heavy cream
2 eggs (large) at room temperature and whisked
Vanilla extract
Chocolate for decorating
Method:
Cut the squash/pumpkin to small pieces, skinned. Place in a microwave-safe dish, cover with cling wrap and microwave for 3 – 4 minutes until cooked.
Mashed them with a spatula, add in sugar and mix well.
Add cream cheese, heavy cream and eggs, whisk together until all combined and no visible lumps.
Lastly, add a dash of vanilla extract to the batter.
Pour into a round 15 cm baking pan.
Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for 30 – 40 minutes.
(Since I don’t have a baking pan of that size, I used muffin cups instead. My baking time took about 30 minutes.)
Once it is cooked, let it cool to room temperature inside the oven with its door ajar.
Decorate as you wish and keep in refrigerator.
Enjoy the cold pumpkin baked cheesecake with your favourite tea or coffee 🙂
Ready to go to preheated oven
Should have let them cool down inside the oven to prevent shrinking
We went to another Korean BBQ restaurant again, another one on our wish list to try. And especially the weather had been perfect for BBQ that night when we went there, it was so cold and windy 🙂 We made reservation few days ahead, just in case it might get too busy and it did on the day! So, remember to call and reserve a table ahead if you plan to come especially during busy times.
They have a very simple menu, it is all about BBQ – all the various meat cuts and very few other dishes only. Unfortunately, you will not find the seafood pancake or different types of stews/hot pots here. But then again, as the name suggests it is a BBQ place so let’s hope they have outstanding meats on that front.
We decided not to get the package options and chose the meat we wanted only. And these were what our dinner looked like:
The side dishes
The meat, nicely cooked and cut for us. From top left clockwise: pork belly, ox tongue, beef rib, and marinated pork ribs.
And, of course the fluffy tasty egg pot…
They are very generous with the side dishes, albeit not many choices. The waiters kept checking with us if we need a refill of anything. The meats are yummy, we especially love the ox tongue and marinated pork ribs that we ordered second servings of those (っ˘ڡ˘ς)
The highlight point of this restaurant is that the waiter actually cooked for us in our burner. They laid the meat on the burner, come back to flip the meat and to put aside the cooked meat. Then rushed back again to change the pan before starting another serving of meat. And still managed to get everything well cooked, not under and not over. We are really happy with this arrangement as we can just sit back and enjoy the meal. Looking at the waiters cook in 1 table then move on to the next and back and forth, it really looks like a scene of Dinner Dash game!
Overall, a highly recommended Korean BBQ restaurant in the area and would love to return again. The menu are fairly priced, good quality of meats, great service and no worry of burning your meat \ (•◡•) /
As I googled chicken galantine, I learn that galantine is a French dish; de-boned stuffed meat (usually poultry) that is poached then served cold. Now, this is quite different to the chicken galantine we have in Indonesia. I am not sure what is the source of my recipe below, it was in my recipe book from years ago and unfortunately back then I had not understood the concept of acknowledging the sources 🙁 So, to whoever created this recipe originally, thank you!
Chicken Galantine:
500 gr minced chicken
6 tablespoons of bread crumb
2 eggs
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons of milk powder
salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Mix all ingredient in a bowl until well combined. Place a few tablespoons of the mix into a sheet of aluminium foil and roll into a log shaped, secure both ends well.
Steam the galantine rolls for about 25 minutes and let it cool before peel off the foil.
Slice each roll into 1.5 cm slices then pan-fried them with butter to give them a bit of colour.
And it’s ready to serve with sauce and condiments.
Sauce:
half onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of maize flour, mix well with little bit of water
water, as needed
salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Saute the onion and garlic with butter until fragrant.
Then add in all sauces above, salt, sugar and pepper; mix and let it boil then add the maize flour mixture to thicken the sauce.
Condiments:
Usually Indonesian style chicken galantine is served together with some steamed vegetables, such as carrots, green bean, broccoli and lettuce leaves. On top of that, french fries often accompany this dish.
Overall this is a good recipe to keep and also make a good lunch box. But, there certainly some variations to make it more special, for example by stuffing some cheese pieces in the middle of the roll; or wrap them with prosciutto or bacon before pan frying them. It will definitely make these tastier and I shall try them next time 🙂
