Because Everyone Loves a Discount!

Hello all you gorgeous readers out there!

The lovely people over at Menulog have offered all the readers here at Nom! a $10 voucher for all takeaway orders put through their website! This is on top of any existing discount offers which the restaurant may have on the website, so effects are stack-able!

Menulog is home of over 20,000 restaurants in Australia, and you can get your take-out delivered straight to your home from over 1000 different places!

All you have to do is head over to their website, make a takeaway order of over $20 with one of the participating restaurants (it'll display an "accepts voucher" sign) and have it delivered to straight your door.

Interested? Here is the code m'lovelies!

Voucher Code: 889D88

Valid until 31/12/10

Have fun nomming away!

Cheers,

WX

Grow Your Own!

Hello all!

I am finally back in action after a glorious trip around Vietnam and Hong Kong - photos will follow as soon as I get my hands on them. (Long story short, my camera died on me early on in the trip so we had to take all food photos on a friend's camera).

While we wait for those posts, I would like to turn everyone's attention to my backyard. What once used to be a lovely flowering garden was re-designed during our renovation into an all-you-can-eat buffet of fruits and vegetables.

Longan

A lot of these plants require patience and TLC all year around. We've refused to use any pesticides on our plants to keep them organic, but it wasn't long before we realised just how much work goes into making sure the babies don't get eaten by insects and animals - after all, birds and insects love fruits too.

The longan tree pictured above has taken the longest to grow. It was given to us at a very heavy discount from the nursery due to its poor form (no joke, it actually looked like a dead plant when we first saw it). Mum claimed that she would be able to nurse it back to good health after some time - turns out she was right. It's taken a few years nevertheless, but it felt so good once we saw the fruits starting to grow on the top of the little tree.

Star fruits

Fruit trees often make a great present too. This star fruit tree was a gift to me from my parents years ago and has since bore several ginormous and delicious babies.

Wintermelons

This plant started sprouting out of nowhere one day and I had no choice but to ask my mother what on earth it was. The conversation went something like this:

"Mum, what melons are we sprouting here?"
"What melon do you want it to be?"
"Wintermelon"
"Okay well it will sprout wintermelons"
"..."

I took these photos about 2 months ago. Turns out my mother was right, yet again. We've now got giant wintermelons for soup, stir-fried wintermelon and wintermelon tea for dinner. Darn that woman.

Mangoes

For some reason everyone in this neighbourhood seems to be popping mangoes out of nowhere. My neighbour has mangoes, my neighbours' neighbour has mangoes, and I have mangoes dropping on my head everytime I walk to the station (no not really, but there's a couple of giant mango trees on the way). Either way I'm not complaining, because come summer time, we grow enough giant mangoes in our very own backyard to make us all happy...unless I decide to make mango desserts, which, is another story altogether.

Fuyu Fruits (Persimmons)

I luuuuuurve fuyu fruits. Although I generally prefer squishy version of persimmons (astringent), throughout high school fuyu fruit became my apple substitute when it came to my almost non-existent lunch box. Let me take this opportunity to explain that I dislike eating apples, especially big ones. Braces may have had something to do with it, I'm not entirely sure. I love apple juice, apple pies and even apple baby food, but I just hate sinking my teeth into the darn fruit.

But I digress. This was the first batch of fuyu fruits from our plant, and unfortunately they ripened while I was still in Vietnam so I missed out on the tasting. I believe there are still a few left on the tree though. Seconds anyone?


Orange

The orange tree is a sad little figure in my garden due to its poor positioning. Note to all, when plant fruit trees, the least you can do is to find them a spot that is suitable for plantation, and not just stuff them anywhere you see fit. My orange tree simply doesn't get enough sunlight to grow sufficiently and I doubt even has enough space to grow. Either way we still give it plenty of TLC in hope that one day it will fruit beautifully.

Herb Garden

Always out of herbs when you need them the most? Do you have a typically Asian fridge where herbs are practically non-existent? Why don't you grow you own and have all the freshest and organic herbs right in your garden ready for picking anytime, 24/7.

This was part of my 21st birthday present from JL. He probably got sick of me complaining about how I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO have fresh parsley for my pasta.

Luffa

And lastly (for now), the Luffa, which is possibly one of the slightly more unique species popping out in our garden. In the Western world, the luffa is more commonly seen in its dried form, or to be more specifically, as a loofah (you know, the stuff you exfoliate your skin with?). However, when chopped up and cooked with soup or stir-fried, they are mildly sweet and juicy and super healthy. They're considered to have a "cooling" effect in the Chinese medicinal world and perfect for hot summers. Oh and another plus is that they're very easy to grow in our climate, and in a short span of a few weeks, we've had about 20 gourds growing out, which meant that there was plenty to go around.

So if you have a bit of space in your backyard, why not grow your own food? Trade seeds and saplings with friends, or in our case, we give away luffas and wintermelons since they're not as abundant in the markets. They don't have to be a lot of work and you can easily start off with a few easy-to-grow vegetables and fruits if you feel like you lack a green thumb, and trial and error doesn't hurt either. It's a learning curve after all.

P.S. Please let me know if you grown taro that has a large, flat, water-unretaining leaf. Either that or you know that the stem from your taro is edible. Oh and that you're happy to share seedlings with. Thanks!

Dear Readers: Broadening Horizons

This is a note to all my faithful readers and fellow bloggers out there to say that I will be jetting off tomorrow on a visit to Vietnam and Hong Kong during which I will not be able to access the blog to make any updates. That is not to say that there will be no one here to keep you company - AY will be here for a little longer before he meets up with JL and I in HK in a few weeks.

Hopefully the experience in Vietnam will broaden my perspective and understanding of food in general - there is much to be gained from learning about the culinary cultures from all around the world. Perhaps it would give me newfound appreciation of food; perhaps it will challenge what I already know. All I can say now is that I'm so wonderfully excited and nervous at the same time browsing through all the potential street food that I'm going to encounter (you couldn't begin to guess just how much time I've spent trawling through EatingAsia) and the variety of cooking courses on offer while I'm over there.

I will be taking PLENTY of photos during the visit - don't you all worry about that. Except I'll only be bringing my compact point-and-shoot in order to travel lightly. So wish me luck and I'll see you all on the other side of what will undoubtedly be an enlightening experience!

Ciao bella!
Love, WX
xoxo

Xmas Special: Sydney Foodies' Xmas Party 2009

This post is being done a little differently. All three writers are contributing their own little version of events on one day...

WX: Yesterday JL, AY and I had the fortunate chance to attend the Sydney Food Bloggers' Xmas Picnic, hosted by the lovely Suze and Helen. The gorgeous afternoon weather was perfect for the occasion - not too hot and showering us with plenty of sunlight.

Suze's Tower of Goodies

Not surprising there was plenty of food for all. Everyone brought their own plate of food (made or bought) and as a result we ended up having enough food to feed the whole of Africa.


Apple Cinnamon Tartlets (Ninja-ing as Fruit Mince Tarts)

It was a lovely afternoon meeting everyone. It was Team Nom's first time meeting the gang and needless to say we all struggled a little with all the names. Luckily, Suze and Helen were super-organised and provided name tags for all, just to minimise confusion and embarrassment.

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon scrolls (from a fellow Pioneer Woman Fan)

Being possibly one of the youngest groups in the circle, I must admit it was pretty inspiring to listen to all the stories people had to share and their own foodie escapades. It was also interesting to see what people actually did as their dayjob - sometimes you forget that people have lives outside of food behind the computer screen.

Kris Kringle Presents for all!

All in all it was a fun-filled day, with lots of surprises, especially with a steal-or-gamble style Kris Kringle. Funnily enough, JL's pick of a present exchanged hands many, many times - until finally Suze stole it back. I lost track of working out who the face plate was with.


AY: One word. Awesome! The weather was perfect for a large gathering of food-lovers in Hyde Park. Since this was the first invitation we’ve received to any sort of foodie event, I think I speak for both WX and JL when I say we were a tad nervous. But seriously? There was absolutely nothing to worry about. Everyone I spoke to was so friendly and willing to include a newbie like myself into the conversation – a conversation about food, photography and travels was almost like a mini journey for myself!

Billy cutting up his champagne jelly

I must’ve repeated myself constantly throughout the day but I felt like I was entering an entirely new industry – the industry known as food blogging – a job, a passion, a life where you live and breathe food and capture the true essence behind all those aromas and flavours. Talking to our fellow bloggers, whether they were new on the scene or veterans to the trade, I just became more driven to develop myself as a writer and consumer of foods. I think at some point, I became a bit self-conscious that I loved food but knew very little about it. This gathering really spurred me to learn more and write more!

Helen's awesome Elvis Cupcakes

I think when you look at the photos from the day capturing the wide expanse of food on that patch of grass at Hyde park, you honestly do begin to salivate. From cupcakes to jellies and fairy bread to chicken wings – I’ve never seen such a wide array of both home-cooked and purchased platters of food. I was pretty lucky that I didn’t give in to my hunger at lunch and just grabbed a small lunch! It was a shame that there was so much food and only one small stomach – so much I didn’t get to try!

The Kris Kringle activity which followed was an awesome pre-Christmas treat of hidden goodies. The catch? If you managed to pick out one of the smaller numbers and got to pick your present first, you were subject to group-wide scrutiny! Anyone who grabbed a larger number was able to either pick from the pile or steal a present from those already picked! I was a bit unlucky on that side of things and managed to lose my bobble headed Darth Vader figurine so instead, I ended up with a cool set of paper cups which have a range of different noses on them to make drinking from them quite a novelty!

Potato Pancake with Chorizo

Thanks to Helen and Suze, the party was a huge success and an extremely good networking and mingling experience for those of us who are fairly new to this amazing ‘industry’. Thanks so much! And of course, thanks to all the friendly and equally passionate food bloggers for making our Sunday an awesome one! We’ll be sure to expand our reading list :)

Me, Me & Me

Hello hello and hello readers! Thank you to WX for the kind, timely and succinct introduction. Just thought I'd be a bit more personal and post something myself before I get serious with this blogging business.

Some of you may know me, some of you may not but you may all just call me AY. I will be the one in charge of all that technical stuff so hopefully in the very near future, you will see a facelift for this blog. If all goes to plan, I also hope to perhaps purchase a domain and get ourselves a webhost with a more user-friendly blogging utility. Beyond that, perhaps being a bit ambitious, I hope to drive more traffic to this blog and see our efforts fly high in the world of foodie-ism.

As WX has noted, I am but a food lover on training wheels. Neither my tastebuds nor my knowledge of food is as well trained and in-depth as hers, but rest assured, my time spent here will fine tune those (hopefully). My previous web design experience with HTML, PHP, blogging platforms and Photoshop will help me revamp and continue to innovate our website. And finally, as an aspiring photographer, I hope to capture the best angles of food to satisfy your eyes and subsequently those salivating mouths.

My aim here as contributer is to help WX and help you guys - to point you in the right direction for food and to make you want to eat. So let us begin...!

Dear Readers: Nom is now a team effort!

Hi all,

After spending a long time thinking about the future and the vision I have for this blog, I'm happy to announce that we now have a new writer joining us here.

AY is one of my best friends and also a fellow foodie. So you could probably imagine my horror when he announced to me the other night that he was readying himself to create his own foodblog in order to create some competition. Perhaps it was the freshly brewed Commerce blood in me, but after doing a few sums (or rather, thinking about the logistics of everything), I quickly decided to pounce on the opportunity to recruit that bastard. After all, two brains are better than one, and you guys definitely deserve better than my sporadic blogging habits.

In other news, since AY has experience in webdesign, it is likely that Nom will be undergoing some general plastic surgery to improve her looks in the near future. Judging from what I know of my skills in technology, I'm going to warn everyone that there may be days where the site will only be half-working because I will have accidentally deleted half the coding without knowing it and then be chased after with a pitchfork.

Okay, now that I have issued my introduction, warning and wastage of 5 minutes of your life, you may resume your daily activities.

Dear Readers: The Problem with Exams

Okay...how do I phrase this? I just want you to know that I haven't been fasting, nor have I been lazying about and not doing anything. Truth is, I have been eating plenty, and taking many snaps and notes at every restaurant I've been to, and I've also been coming up with new recipes. The only thing I haven't been doing is posting about them. The reason for this is simple. It's that time of the semester again (that being finals), so I really haven't had much of a chance to just sit in front of my computer to type decent articles and reviews and what not. I want to do justice to each of the restaurants I've been to, so I do spend quite a decent amount of time writing each post - and time is simply something I haven't had in the past 2 weeks.

I have a final on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week, after which I'll be able to settle down briefly to provide some decent posts. Thanks all for your readership and I promise I will do your patience justice when I return from my exams.

Gnocchi - What Not To Do

I've been putting off posting this for a very long time. But deep down I knew that I had to do it eventually, for the sake of keeping the integrity of a blog that proclaims to be the foodie adventures of a 20-something year old.

I suppose it always helps people to know what NOT to do when you're trying to make something.

Either way, the story goes a little like this:

I love gnocchi.
My favourite gnocchi experience was the gnocchi gorgonzola from Machiavelli's.
Then I thought I was gangster-chef, and decided to replicate the dish at home. From scratch.
Then I used Alex Herbert's recipe from Masterchef.
Then I forgot how much potato was needed and bought too little. But because I was feeling so gangster I thought I could somehow make it work anyway.
Then I figured since I steered off the recipe a little, then it wouldn't matter if I steered off a little more.
Then Coles decided not to sell Gorgonzola (which is a type of blue cheese), so I substituted with King Island Blue Cheese.
And then I got home and the chaos began.

Error No.1: I cut the pieces of potatoes too small. This caused serious waterlogging issues in my potatoes and formed a poor dough. It also allowed them to be overcooked too quickly.

I had 1.2kgs of Desiree Potatoes. The recipe called for 1.5kg.

And here I thought I was being clever and cutting cooking time. Gosh.

Error No. 2: If you're planning on waterlogging your potatoes then at least make the effort to drain them properly.

Clearly that never really crossed my mind as I was making this.

This is about 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese. I may have added more because I couldn't control myself.
And this is one cup of plain flour. I didn't get EVERYTHING wrong.

Then I mashed the drained potatoes, and combine with parmesan and a pinch of salt.

Hopefully your potatoes will be quite cool by now because you'll be needing to crack an egg into it. Luckily, mine were sufficiently cool so I didn't end up with cooked egg in my gnocchi mix. Eww.

Then sift the one cup of flour into the mixture and combine everything well. Don't beat it too heavily because you want everything quite light and fluffy. I don't think I sifted mine.

Mix mix. Mix mix. Mixmixmixmixmix.

Then on a floured surface, knead the gnocchi dough lightly.

Once the dough feels smooth, flour the surface once again and break off a small piece and roll the dough into a sausage. Cut individual pieces of gnocchi the size of whatever you're happy to put into your mouth and line them on a tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Put them aside while you prepare the sauce.

I wanted to keep the sauce fairly simple, so I chopped up a handful of continental parsley. Use as much or as little as you like. I'm pretty generous with mine as I love the stuff.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling water, I dropped my gnocchi in and just kind of forgot about it while I made the sauce.

*smacks head on table*

Schoolboy error.

Anyway, back to the sauce. I used about a cup of cream for the base, with a small pinch of nutmeg. Those little black specks in the picture are parsley. I couldn't control myself.

Then I crumbed about a tonne of blue cheese.

Seriously, about a tonne. Not only did I put enough to turn my house into a gas chamber and drive my parents out with the stink, but that was definitely enough blue cheese to last me a life time.

Yes. I was cooking for one. I honestly don't know what I was thinking.

Then I salvaged whatever gnocchi I had left from the pot that I had forgotten about. The pieces were falling apart and I think I may have cried a little at this point.

All that effort for a few pieces of gnocchi that ended up falling apart anyway. Gosh. What a bad day in the kitchen.

The stench of the blue cheese also didn't leave for a few days...but I won't go into that.

Nevertheless I still plated it up, had a few bites to appreciate what a horrible mess I had made of the dish. It was still edible, to say the least, and experience-wise it was a huge level up.

So here it is folks, my first post on a horrid day in the kitchen.

Because trees are more fun when they bear fruit

Once in a while, when I finally get my act together, I would spit the dummy at the sight of the mess in my room and start on a cleaning rampage throughout the house. Floorboards would be scrubbed, along with all other surfaces, and any unwashed laundry would be promptly stuffed into the drum of a run-down washing machine and hung out to dry.

It is on rare occasions that I bother venturing into that garden of mine - which is a shame really, because I actually think I have a pretty nice garden with lots of fruiting trees.

This weekend, as I was hanging out the laundry on the line, a little something caught my attention in the corner of my eyes. At first I thought it was just a yellowing leaf, but then just as I turned back and resumed what I was doing, it suddenly occurred to me just how GINORMOUS that leaf was.

And so I moved closer...

and closer...

and closer...

and closer still...

And then I realised...

Hell no it ain't no yellowing-mutant-leaf! It was a STARFRUIT!

My baby tree was finally bearing fruit! And not one, but TWO beautiful babies! I quickly ran to grab my camera and took a few snaps and then proceeded to pick them before some bird found it.

Seriously I've spent half my life trying to fight off birds from my fruit trees, though I can't really blame them 'cos these homegrown fruits really do taste good.

Josophan's Fine Chocolates - Part I

I don't like chocolate.

Seriously. No joke.

It's not that I hate it and refuse to have anything to do with it, it's just that...well, it simply does not make my heart flutter the way that it does for most other girls. I like chocolate flavoured things like ice cream, cakes, mousses etc, but I just don't like the actual block chocolate stuff that people seem to just give away as a "oh I needed to give you a gift but wasn't sure what to get" type of gift.

Let it be known that I'd happily pick away at a jar of good olives than even so much as bothering to touch a block of Cadbury.
Having said that, I simply could not walk past Josophan's Fine Chocolates in Leura without sneaking a peek at the goodies inside.Josophan's Chocolates have won numerous awards over the years at various produce shows, including the Sydney Royal Show and has consistently remained at the top of the chocolate making industry. Obviously I'm not much a chocolate connoisseur, but luckily for me JL loves his sweets and all the things I don't so that he may fill in the gaps where needed.According to him the chocolates were incredibly smooth and sensuous in texture. He had bought milk chocolate, and the subtle taste of milk could actually be tasted through the gentle sweetness. I took a bit myself and had to agree. It was amazing to finally appreciate the sweet scent of milk in the chocolate.

If it weren't for my love of purple, I think I would be hating Cadbury by now.

In the end we decided to all chip in for a box of 8. However, we only ended up getting 6 as the Cappucino cups and Cafe Noir were special and counted as 2 in the box. I wasn't complaining as I was really only interested in the Cafe Noir. In retrospect I think the Hazelnut Praline would have been pretty nice as well.Now this would be the part where I was meant to tell you about the taste and texture of the chocolate. Unfortunately I can't do that. Why?

I never ended up eating the chocolate. Long story short we had an overdosage of food on the trip and the fact we had a box of good chocolates just didn't really appeal to me. I did remember to take photos for the sake of the blog, but gosh...

As if you could bear to destroy those beautiful pieces of chocolate. Seriously.