I know I been slacking off with blogging. I shifted jobs and the hours are a bit longer with later hours so I am still trying to adjust to that. A few weeks ago I was very much stumped with picking a restaurant for my birthday. My picks ended up being little hunter and Coda. Sadly Little Hunter couldn’t fit us in for a booking so Coda it is. Only problem with getting a booking on the day is you are left with the awkward corner table. Coda is a restaurant by Adam D’Sylva (The Age Good Food Guide’s young chef of the in 2008). The best way to describe the food is Asian fusion Tapas with a French twist. Walk-ins are also available at the bar if you are lucky. On a Friday night the restaurant is noisy and buzzing. There is one thing about the restaurant I really like, the vibe and the atmosphere.

For dinner there are ”smaller” items which some of the smaller items are priced per item and others are entrée sizes. The bigger plates are shared plates. A little birdy tells me you can give a “half” of the share of the bigger plates but this time we didn’t get to try to order a half of the bigger plate. There are also sides and sweets on the menu. I honestly wanted all the seafood items off the menu. Oh boy I love seafood and to think that a time in my life I hated it! Now when I meet someone new who hates seafood I think it’s a blessing, more for me then .

Awkward corner table.

I usually ended up ordering a cocktail. The glass was very small felt like only a few tablespoons.

For the smaller plates we picked Hervey Bay scallop, pearl tapioca and Yarra Valley salmon caviar $7.8 each. The Scallops are cooked perfectly, I really wanted to order more but at almost $8 each it was quite steep.

Yellow fin tuna, daikon, green apple salad with pinenuts, ponzu and fresh wasabi $24. On paper this sounded amazing but it was the biggest let down of the night. The first taste was okay but the more you eat it, the flavours were too overwhelming. The Mr mentioned it was a reminiscent of Yee Sang.

Aperol cured ocean trout, roasted pickled beetroot, crème fraîche sorbet and avocado mousse $18. Perfect flavours working well and I almost got to the point of plate licking once again.

Cape Grim scotch fillet with café de paris (allow 30 minutes) $38. This didn’t wow me too much, it had great flavours but nothing that stood out.

The poached pear dessert. I much preferred the dessert below while Mr prefers this dessert.

Toasted meringue, vanilla chiffon cake, passionfruit curd, coconut and mango sorbet $16. I knew I had to ordered this after Mel blogged about this. One of the best desserts I ever had not sweet at all and great textures and flavours in the dessert. Both desserts we had at Coda was fantastic!

In the end the bill came up to nearly $150, it’s not too bad but I do think the prices are quite steep but the overall menu was enjoyable except for the tuna. We were bit still a bit hungry afterwards but we find this usual since we both hungry monsters. Would I return? Definitely but sadly not anytime soon it’s quite pricey for our pockets

Basement 141 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.codarestaurant.com.au/

May 17, 2013 Julie Asian Fusion, Melbourne 7 comments

I had this recipe bookmarked since receiving the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook. I ooed and ahhed and reminded myself I will do it one day. As time pass the only thing that turned me off was the instructions, they were written purely for someone with a stand mixer. Sadly I don’t have a stand mixer , I realise this shouldn’t stop me I will make do it with no stand mixer! Now what is this magical thing called a bagel bomb? It’s supposedly a bagel and the inside is a “plug mixture” mostly consisting of cream cheese and bacon. I’m too sold on calling it a bagel but then again I’m not American so what would I know all I know it is indeed delicious

I did I had a problem with the dough part of the recipe it didn’t seem to rise at all. After 1.5 hours nothing was happening, it seem it grew a tiny bit but definitely not much.  There was only an image in the momofuku milk bar book of the bagel bombs and it looked much larger. I googled and it seems like a few other bloggers bagel bombs turned out quite small so my faith got restored. I continued just using the dough as it and I simply love the end result!

I follow a lot of the recipe to a tee but use my hands to knead the dough and made adjustments here and there to suit the Australian Kitchen and my taste. What  annoyed me the most is that what is required is “200 grams cream cheese” because cream cheese comes in packets 250grams! Who else gets annoyed by these things? What am I’m suppose to do with the extra 50 grams? Oh wells more into the recipe I guess . The recipe itself is in a few parts but don’t be alarmed it’s a bit lengthy but not hard at all!

Recipe Adapted From Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook

Bacon, Spring Onion & cream cheese plug:

50-100 grams of smoked bacon*
250 grams of a block of cream cheese
half a stalk of a spring onion thinly sliced
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of kosher or sea salt flakes
*use normal bacon if you can’t find, original recipe states 50 grams personally I used 85 grams. If using smoked bacon buy actual “smoked bacon” – I had a few times when people try to sell me smoked bacon but it’s not truly smoked, you can tell by the smell & aroma.

Half of a Mother Dough recipe:

225 grams of plain flour
1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt or sea salt flakes
1/4 a packet of active dry yeast
7/8 cups of room temperature water
a neutral oil

Bagel Mix:

1 teaspoon of kosher salt or sea salt flakes
1.5 tablespoon of white sesame seeds
1.5 tablespoon of poppy seeds

Bagel Bomb

everything above
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon of water

For the Plug:
1. Heat oil in a pan Cook bacon in a pain over medium heat until well browned. Chopped bacon into pieces. Keep the bacon oil
2. Cream the cream cheese in a bowl by use a hand mixer – mixing on medium speed, add the bacon oil while mixing.
3. Now add the spring onions, sugar & salt and use a spoon to combine the mixture together.
4. Divide mixture into 8 portions on a plate and cover with cling wrap. Place in freezer until frozen solid about 1-3 hours

For the Mother Dough:
5. Sift flour in a bowl and add yeast & salt. Use a spoon to well combine.
6. Place on a clean bench and start kneading the dough quite a number of times until it’s smooth.
7. Brush oil in the bowl and place dough inside to rest for 90 minutes. My dough did not double it turned out fine

For the Bagel mix:
8. Mix everything together, can be kept for 6 months

The Bagel Bomb
9. Pre-heat the oven to 165 degrees
10. Flour a clean bench a little and slightly knead the dough, then divide into 8 portions.
11. Roll each portion flat into pieces about 5-8cms circle
12. Place plug in the middle of the circle. Wrap the dough around the plug until it’s well covered. It should be slightly round with a bit of a flat base.
13. Arrange bagels on a baking tray with baking paper, making sure there is a few cms between each one
14. Mix egg and water together and coat bagels with egg wash.
15. Sprinkle bagel mix on top of the bagels.
16. Place bagels in the oven for 20-30 minutes. Don’t be alarmed if cream cheese splits out, this is normal and happen to all my bagels
17. Serve bagels warm or can be keep for 3 days. Please sure to warm them up in an oven before eating! My husband brought a few to work, we wrapped in foil and he placed it in the toaster press! This works too!

Inside the bagel bomb. Yum!

April 18, 2013 Julie American, Momofuku, Momofuku Milk Bar 22 comments

There was word on the street about a new ramen Joint that had opened in Melbourne. The word “new” and the word “ramen” makes me excited because I’m one ramen loving gal. We arrived about 6:30pm on a Friday night and there was a short line already. After about 10 minutes of waiting we were soon seated. The restaurant is tiny and could fit probably about 25-30 people. I saw a few tables where 5 people was squeezing into a 4 person table and 3 person into a 2 person table, anything for ramen

For drinks we ordered pot of green tea to share. I am not fussed about my tea but they do use teabags in the teapot.

I was eyeing the gyoza but poor hubby had bit of a sort throat so we skipped it this time but we will make sure to order it on the next visit. Instead we ordered a fried rice as a starter/side.

The Wok Fried Rice with egg, bbq pork and spring onions $5.5. We don’t normally order fried rice outside of home since it can be easily made at home but this was good, lots of pepper and the right amount of “wok hei”, if only it was bigger

I picked the Classic tonkotsu Ramen with Miso $9.9 with added gooey egg $1.5.  The broth has been cooked for over 10 hours and  is topped with seaweed, bamboo shoots, spring onion and bbq pork. With the classic tonkotsu ramen you can picked either Miso (soybean), shoyu (special soy base) or Shio (light salt base).

Hubby picks the Chashu Tamago – Classic tonkotsu ramen with gooey egg and extra slices of pork $12.90 (can’t remember the price so correct me if I’m wrong)

We enjoyed both ramen and it ticked single box. It wasn’t too light in flavour but not too heavy. The thickness of the broth was soupy rather then thick (compared to dontoo, gumshara thick broth, kokoro ramen), I find with thick soups that it gets heavy and harder to slurp down as you go on. It also didn’t leave the dreaded thirsty aftertaste. Oh and the egg was cooked perfectly, I am very fussy with my gooey eggs and I am glad it was perfect!

Could this be Melbourne’s best ramen? I think so! Although the hubbie debates he prefers dontoo but I think it comes down to personal preference.

There is also an option to “upsize your  ramen” for $3. Restaurant is a bit of a tight squeeze and its get a bit stuffy but it’s one good ramen and I am looking forward to going back. Service is quick and prompt as well.

346 Little Bourke St (two shops down from Shanghai Street)
Melbourne, VIC 3000

April 5, 2013 Julie Asian, japanese, Melbourne, Ramen 8 comments