Blog Marco - Food

Oatmeal for Breakfast

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:13:59 -0800

Teaser:
Oatmeal for Breakfast - How to cook oatmeal for a healthy breakfast

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I used to eat spam and eggs with rice for breakfast (well I still do but maybe once or twice a week) but now I've switched to the healthy diet of oatmeal breakfast. Above in the photo are the ingredients I use. I started off with 2 minute microwave oats with premixed flavourings, which evolved to rolled oats and honey.

And now I've mixed up this rather elaborate mix of oatmeal which recently I added some Kashi 7 whole grain honey puffs which I brought home from USA (Long grain brown rice, whole oats, whole barley, whole triticale, whole rye, whole buckwheat, sesame seed).

Oatmeal for Breakfast Ingredients and Recipe

Serves one person

Lowan Wholegrain Rolled Oats (1/2 cup)
Sunsol Fruity Muesli (mix of dried fruits and oats) (1/2 cup)
Purified Alkaline Water (1 1/2 cups)
Teaspoon of Breakfast Toppers (Dried fruit)
Mix all into pot, heat until simmering, mix. You'll know when it's done once all the water has been absorbed by the oats. Throw the mix into a bowl.

Vietnamese Pork Roll

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:02:01 -0700

Teaser:
Vietnamese Pork Roll - Recipe and Where to Buy

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The best value fast food in Sydney is the humble Vietnamese pork roll. Most Vietnamese bakeries sell these pork rolls all day which has a variety of ingredients. I first discovered this food while I was standing in a bus line in Cabramatta - the bus was delayed so I went across the road for a snack... from that afternoon on I would savour this cheap as food as one of my favourite snacks.

But watch out! Bad food handling with Vietnamese pork rolls can lead to food poisoning. You'll often see these people handling money and also making your roll without wearing gloves or washing their hands. Some also don't keep their ingredients cool enough so bacteria tends to grow like crazy in their ingredients. Don't expect hygiene standards to be high when you buy your roll.

Vietnamese Pork Roll Recipe

Here's the typical recipe for a tasty Vietnamese pork roll:

Fresh Chille
Crusty Bread Roll aka baguette
Liver Pate
Chilli sauce (sometimes)
Fish sauce (to taste)
Mayonaise
Fresh coriander
Julienned carrot
Pork meat with the red edges
Some other pork meat derivative which has huge fat chunks
Cumumber

Where to get your Vietnamese Pork Roll in Sydney

Go to Cabramatta - Vietnamese central in Sydney's South western suburbs. You'll be able to go there and grab a pork roll on every street corner - or even pho.

National Ice Cream Day

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:18:45 -0700

Teaser:
The National Ice Cream Day in US

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President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984 and the third Sunday of the month was proclaimed as National Ice Cream Day. This is due to the fact that President Reagan recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation's population. During such proclamation, President Reagan called for all people of the United States to observe these events with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."

The proclamation was very much supported by The International Ice Cream Association (IICA) who encourages retailers and consumers to celebrate July as National Ice Cream Month.

The U.S. ice cream industry generates more than $21 billion in annual sales and provides jobs for thousands of U.S. citizens. About 9% of all the milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is used to produce ice cream, contributing significantly to the economic well-being of the nation's dairy industry. So aside from being very delicious, ice cream also has other benefits particularly to a nation's economy.

Prawn Pizza

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:39:03 -0700

Prawn Pizza topping Recipe: Ingredients include: fresh prawns, anchovies, capsicum, tomato sauce with fresh basil, Spanish onion, mushrooms and mozzarella. Previous pizza: Chorizo Pizza. Here is the pizza base recipe. And don't forget to have Tabasco on standby.

Legendary Tabasco Sauce

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:38:57 -0700

Who can't live without Tabasco - the legendary sauce? Tabasco sauce is a brand of hot sauce made from tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco), vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavour and is popular in many parts of the world.

Tabasco is trademarked as the brand name for the variety of tabasco sauce marketed by one of the United States' biggest producers of hot sauce, the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. While there are many other kinds on the market, Tabasco is the most famous brand of "hot pepper sauce".[citation needed] Although it is produced in the United States, it acquired its name from the state of Tabasco in Mexico. The McIlhenny Company is now in its fifth generation as a family-run business. All of the 145 shareholders either inherited their stock or were given it from another living family member.

Chorizo Pizza

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 03:38:55 -0700

Chorizo Pizza Recipe: Ingredients include: Chorizo, olives, capsicum, tomato sauce, Spanish onion, mushrooms and mozzarella. Here is the recipe for the base.

Lindt Cafe Menu Drinks

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:51:33 -0700

Here is a screenshot of the Lindt Sydney Store Cafe Drinks Menu.

Lindt Cafe Menu Desserts

Wed, 20 May 2009 16:51:30 -0700

Here is a screenshot of the Lindt Sydney Store Cafe Desserts Menu.

Recipe for Making the Perfect Pizza Base

Fri, 01 May 2009 01:04:13 -0700

Teaser:
How to Make the Perfect Pizza Base - Recipe for Pizza Base

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Here's the recipe I use for making a pizza base. This quantity makes about 4 x 30cm diameter pizzas. Put whatever topping you want with Tomato sauce, basil, and cheese (mozarella).

Here's the recipe for a perfect pizza base: Mix 400g Strong Flour with 350mL warm water + 7g Sachet of Yeast + Brown Sugar to feed the yeast fungi. Mix it up the dough and clump it together. Then cover your mixing bowl with a tea towel or glad wrap and place in a warm place. (I put it on top of my computer or a warm window sill) After an hour, preheat the oven at about 240 degrees centigrade and get 200g of soft flour, a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil (experiment with the amount) and mix together and knead the dough for about 5 to 10 minutes with your hands. We use a pizza stone to bake the pizza - I sprinkle the stone with bran to stop the pizza sticking to the stone. Put your toppings on. The oven is now preheated some 15 - 20 minutes. Place your pizza in the oven. Time to cook should be 8 to 15 minutes depending if your over is fan forced or not. Just be careful you don't burn your crust or your cheese. When cheese becomes "sunburnt" it doesn't taste as good and is really chewy instead of gooey.

How is Fish Sauce Made?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:42:53 -0700

Teaser:
Have You ever wondered How Fish Sauce is Made?

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Ever wondered how fish sauce is made? Fish sauce is an Asian dipping condiment and also an essential ingredient to many dishes in Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, Cambodian, and Filipino cuisine and is used in other Southeast Asian countries.

Different fish sauces have different ingredients: Some fish sauces (extracts) are made from raw fish, others from dried fish; some from only a single species, others from whatever is dredged up in the net, including some shellfish; some from whole fish, others from only the blood or viscera. Some fish sauces contain only fish and salt, others add a variety of herbs and spices. Fish sauce that has been only briefly fermented has a pronounced fishy taste, while extended fermentation reduces this and gives the product a nuttier, cheesier flavor.

In other words - fish sauce = rotten fish. But it tastes good. More info here: How fish sauce is made

How do you say Worcestershire (Sauce)?

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:59:32 -0700

Teaser:
How do you say Worcestershire (Sauce)?

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A great condiment to have with steak is Worcestershire sauce... Worcestershire... its one of those mysterious English words with weird pronunciation. How do you say Worcestershire (Sauce) anyway? It's that obscure word which a lot of people are afraid to say. Wikipedia says it pronounced this way: /ˈwʊstəˌʃɪər/ But who has time to decipher that code?

Some websites claim Worcestershire is said like: "Woos-tur-shur". Or "wer-chis-ter"... or even try Wurs-ster-sheer or Wurs-ster-shire or Wurs-ster-shur or Woos-ster-shur. How about: "woostr-shîr". Wikipedia claims its said like "Wooster". I think TV Chef Gordon Ramsay referred to it as "Wooster sauce". Interestingly enough, the Japanese version of this sause is called "Usutā sōsu". Go figure.

Restaurant Waiter Behaviour

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:44:38 -0800

Teaser:
A New York restaurant waiter confesses all in a book called Waiter Rant

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A New York restaurant waiter, Steve Dublanica, has written a book called "Waiter Rant". The book exposes the restaurant industry, revealing insights into the world of waiting tables in an Italian restaurant in NYC. He writes about waiters spitting in food and about psychological games that wait staff play on restaurant customers who are abusive or arrogant clientele.

Other restaurant waitstaff behaviour described by Dublanica include selling techniues such as the "daily special" or if a customer asks, "what's good?" the answer is usually the dish which the chef needs to move otherwise the stock will go off.

How to be a good restaurant customer

Make reservations and keep them. On a Friday or Saturday night it's not unusual for 20 per cent of a restaurant's reservations not to show up. Not only is that rude, it hurts the restaurant's bottom line, forcing management to over-book. If you've ever wondered why your table's never ready when you show up for your reservation on time, that's usually the reason.

If you're going to be late for your reservation, please call. After half an hour you might not get the special table you requested but you'll still get in. An hour late? Don't even bother.

Never say: "I'm friends with the owner." Restaurant owners don't have friends. This marks you as clueless the moment you walk in the door.

Leave your children at home if possible.

Be polite. Say please and thank you.

Never say: "Do you know who I am?" Why? Did you forget who you are?

Do not snap your fingers to get the waiter's attention.

Do not use your mobile phone in the restaurant. Unless you're a heart-transplant surgeon on standby, turn it off.

Please make your server go through the specials only once.

When ordering wine, don't sniff the cork.

What's the secret to being treated like a regular customer? Be a regular customer.

If you can't afford to tip the staff, you just can't afford to eat in the restaurant.

Shit Sundae - Coogee Bay Hotel

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:13:07 -0700

Teaser:
Coogee Bay Hotel Court Case - Customers Served Human Faeces in Complementary Ice Cream Gelato

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Argh! Imagine being given food with human excrement in it? Well that is what allegedly happened at Coogee Bay Hotel in a current court case. An editorial article by Matthew Evans (who was the chief restaurant reviewer for the SMH) made me even sicker...

Seeing the chef sitting on the toilet as they peeled prawns, perhaps? The slightly dodgy drip tray from the pub being used in the beer batter? The chef wiping the steak inside their Y-fronts or running it around the rim of the toilet because the customer had complained that their medium-cooked steak was still pink? It has happened.

"Of course I've seen chefs over-season food because it was off, using it in curries and the like," says one Sydney chef I spoke to who did not want to be named. "But the worst thing I've ever seen with my own eyes was in England. This guy always came in late. He'd order sea bass every night right on last orders at 11.30pm and then send it back and ask for it to be recooked. One day [the chef] did a huge hock and put a great big greenie under it. The customer reckoned it was the best sea bass ever."

Obama Gobbling a Hotdog

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:13:00 -0700

Obama gobbling a hotdog in Montana on Independence day 2008. While we're on the topic of politics, remember this funny photo of Bush?

Philippine Food Festival Sydney

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:28:33 -0700

Philippine Food Festival was CRAP. Rating at a 5 out of 10 (maybe even a 4 out of ten). Around 100 people turned up. This Filipino Food festival wasn't great. The food was bland, dry and very mild in taste. Here's what the flyer claimed the meal was to be: "Enjoy tantalising South East Asian cuisine rich in exotic flavours, specially created by Michel Le Teuff, who will be our guest Executive Chef for this Festival. Chef Le Teuff joins us from the prestigious Travel Cafe Philippines, Makati City. Luscious dishes bursting with flavour will bring the essence of the Philippines to the Grace Brasserie." So where is the "tantilising" tastes we were promised Chef Le Teuff? Where are the "exotic flavours" and luscious dishes?

At AUD$45 a head at this buffet meal we were expecting much more from an international imported chef. I wasn't even "full" (busog). Compare this with a really tasty meal at Dampa in Paranaque (which is just a stone's throw away from the international airport). We were able to feed three people there for only $40. Or how about the masarap (tasty) lechon from cebu?. Hell we fed 5 people for only AUD$15 and we were soooo full then. Perhaps we should have just ate at one of my usual restaurants near UTS or just venture to Newtown for some exotic tastes from all the Thai food out there.