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Merry Christmas from OIM!

Food Adventures in Chatswood

If you live anywhere near Chatswood in the lower north shore of Sydney, you may have seen or heard about the recent surge of renowned retail and food outlets popping up in the increasingly busy neighbourhood. From the oh so kawaii Hello Kitty Diner to the Michelin star restaurant Tim Ho Wan, and from novelty ramen burgers to delightfully spicy Sichuan noodles, there is no shortage of delicious cuisine from around the world to awaken all your senses. With lots of new food to try and time to kill, my friend and I (sorry Annette! Next time.) decided to go cafe hopping to try some of the somewhat less promoted (but still very popular) places. Withour further ado, here is how the day went down.



Our day begun in a dainty little cafe called Burnt Orange situated in the middle of Chatswood Chase. Although it's right in the middle of the shopping centre, the ambiance is nice and relaxing. The tables are covered by a green canopy which gives the cafe a nice, peaceful touch to it. The menu looked absolutely amazing and every dish stood out to us, but ultimately we decided on the Alaskan Crab Benedict on brioche, pictured above. It tasted every bit as amazing as it looks. The brioche was super soft and toasted perfectly to give a nice crunch and the Alaskan crab tasted fresh and real but the real winner was the hollandaise sauce which matched the crab and brioche to a tee and was bursting with flavour. I also ordered a summer goddess smoothie (containing banana, passionfruit, orange, yogurt and honey) whilst my friend ordered an Elderflower presse juice. Both were refreshing and suitable for summer but nothing too special. Overall, we both thoroughly enjoyed the food at Burnt Orange even though it was slightly pricy. Tip: don't go on Sunday like us as there's a 10% surcharge.



After that "entree," we moved onto The Elbow Room Espresso, located right outside the Westfield exit on Spring St. It had a nice, almost rustic feel to it but boy were we dying in the non-air conditioned 35 degree weather. We came in here with only one goal in mind, to try the Green Tea French Toast. But we also ended up getting the Grilled Octopus Salad as well.



First up, the Green Tea French Toast. We loved it. I mean what is there not to love? There's green tea, ice cream, mochi, pistachios, pear, banana and French Toast! Only the best combination of ingredients since French fries and soft serve! I'm joking but in all honesty, the flavours all balanced well together, it wasn't overly sweet and the cold ice cream balanced out the warm French Toast. Not to mention the green tea mochi was the softest mochi I've ever eaten! Would definitely recommend. The Grilled Octopus Salad was also decent. I didn't enjoy it as much as the French Toast but can we even compare sweet with savoury dishes anyway? The Octopus was my favourite part, salty and satisfyingly chewy, but the rest of the salad, consisting of couscous, rocket, mint, almonds and sundried tomatoes wasn't too bad either.



By this point, my friend and I were already stuffed and we seriously considered giving up for the day but alas we dived deep and found it in ourselves to shove one more dessert in. So that is how we rounded out our day at Passion Tree Cafe at the District food court above Chatswood Interchange. This cafe specialises in exotic sounding, Asian inspired desserts, one of which is the Red Bean Bingsoo that we tried. Bingsoo is a popular Korean dessert that we've been dying to try for the longest time so we were super excited for this. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint! It wasn't too sweet (although it did get sweeter towards the end when all the ice was gone) and there was such a variety of textures from the crunchy cornflakes to the soft, chewy mochi. Perfect dessert to end the hot summer's day.

And that is the end of our food adventure folks! There's SO much more food In Chatswood that we've yet to try - and would've loved to - had we not been struggling with the limitations of our stomachs. Here's to hoping there's a sequel in the future :3

The Red Centre, Australia

Throne of Leaves

Sunset

On Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sculpture by the Sea 2015

Hey guys! We're back with another instalment of things to do in Sydney! If you're into art and scenery, then you'll love Sculpture by the Sea, an annual sculpture exhibition that takes place along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. The exhibition generally runs from late October to early November for around three weeks. This event is the largest sculpture exhibition worldwide, and features artists from all over the globe. What makes this experience so unique is that you get the chance to view the artworks within a gorgeous environmental landscape, which really adds a new dimension as opposed to visiting a traditional art gallery.

One of the most exciting parts of the event was the pop-up cafe by the Grounds of Alexandria, aptly named Grounds by the Sea. This year it was hobbit-themed, inspired by JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The decor was reminiscent of the hobbit hole, and it even had a sign-post pointing down to Middle Earth! Annette opted for the ham and cheese toastie with pickles, which was tasty but definitely a bit too salty for her liking. Lillian decided to go with the beef burger, which was classic but slightly oily, however the sauce was tangy and balanced well with the cheese and beef. The smoothies were really pleasant and refreshing; Annette had the mango mulch, which was very fruity and not too sweet, while Lillian had the berried treasure which was similarly enjoyable. It was pretty expensive, but yunno, #YOLO. 

P.S. If you do decide to go to Sculpture by the Sea in the future, try to be a little better prepared than us, and don't leave it too late! We went on the last day, when the coastal walk was super packed and it was really hard to take good photos and enjoy the sculptures fully. But despite all of that, it was still a great experience and you should definitely consider it if you haven't been there already.

Bondi Beach

The Grounds of Alexandria

This week it was my mother's birthday, so we really wanted to go somewhere special. Tucked away in Alexandria, among tall industrial buildings and traffic-packed city streets, there is a surprisingly large paradise filled with food, flowers, and farmyard animals. The Grounds of Alexandria are ideal for a family day out, especially if you're after some gorgeous photo ops, a gourmet brunch, and some great deli supplies to take home. When I arrived with my family, we were all completely in awe of the beautiful gardens and the idyllic village atmosphere. If you're keen on Instagram, you'll love this hipster haven - everywhere you turn, there are a million heavenly pictures waiting to be taken. No filter required.

The Grounds of Alexandria features a beautiful florist shop, pastry carts, a cafe, a bar, a restaurant, a large deli by the name of Salt Meats Cheese (pretty self-explanatory), sustainable gardens, an atrium, and even, occasionally, markets that sell specialty arts and crafts, handmade jewellery and home wares. You could spend an entire day exploring the Grounds, and still have plenty left to do and see for the next visit.

If that's not enough for you, the Grounds experience comes complete with a petting zoo enclosure, where you can view some delightful animals such as fluffy chickens, goats, a pony, and a large pig who goes by the name 'Kevin Bacon'. Amazing, right? Personally, my favourite animal encounter was with a brown and white goat (pictured below, bottom left) who came right up to the wooden fence and rubbed up against my hand like an affectionate puppy. As you wander around the Grounds, you'll also meet Fluffy the parrot, who will regale you with a song if you're lucky.

Let's get onto the food. There were quite a few venue options available within the Grounds, including the Garden BBQ (which featured a limited menu with some affordable lunch options), the Potting Shed (which served some hearty mains for lunch and dinner), and the popular Cafe (which focused on brunch-style food, desserts, and a vast array of bread). We decided to go to the Cafe, which had a very enticing menu and very reasonable prices. After much deliberation over the menu, we decided to share three mains and a side: the grilled squid fattoush, the Grounds reuben, the crab bruschetta, and some polenta chips. 

Overall, the food was tasty and reliable, however it did not strike me as spectacular in its flavour or creativity. The squid was nicely grilled, and the toasted flatbread sticks added an interesting dimension to the fresh, tangy fattoush salad. The Grounds reuben was enjoyably saucy, however the flavour lacked complexity, and the chips were not as crunchy as I've had elsewhere. I quite liked the crab bruschetta; the crab meat was sweet and nicely seasoned, and paired perfectly with the creaminess of the smashed avocado on top of the crisp bruschetta. For me, the winner of the day was the polenta chips; they were fluffy, hot and flavoursome on the inside and perfectly crunchy and golden on the outside. 

We also took home a selection of six desserts from the Patisserie, as well as two loaves of crusty bread (Himalayan red rice & pigeon seed... delicious!). All of these were of a high standard, and we are definitely excited to go back and try more someday. On a final note, the Salt Meats Cheese deli is really worth exploring if you get the chance - there were so many things in there that I'd never seen before, including a large selection of flavoured salts, gorgeous flavoured pasta, a cheese room (my literal heaven), luxurious cured meats, and obscure brands of drinks and ice cream that look absolutely divine. If you're in Sydney, you should totally check out the Grounds of Alexandria, if not just for the food, then for the sheer joy of seeing something new and different. 

Balls Head Reserve

Easy Homemade Banana Ice Cream

Such easy. Much peasy.
This week was the beginning of my summer break, meaning that I've had a lot of time on my hands to try new things. One of my current crazes is looking at online recipes that are super simple and don't involve long shopping lists. You'd be surprised at how many delicious dishes you can create using less than five ingredients! Cakes, pies, pasta, and even- you guessed it- ice cream!! At the risk of making this whole blog about ice cream, I just had to share this with you. You can make a creamy, delicious banana ice cream using only one ingredient in its most basic form. All you really need are a few large, ripe bananas. 

Method 
(5 large bananas = 6-8 servings)

1. Cut the ripe bananas into thick slices.
2. Wrap the banana slices in cling-wrap, and place into the freezer for over 2 hours.
3. Take the banana slices out of the freezer and blend them in a food processor until smooth. Optional extra step: Add a couple tablespoons of another flavour according to your preference. For instance, I decided to add some coconut cream to enrich the creamy taste of the bananas. Other alternatives could include cocoa powder, coffee powder, peanut butter, salted caramel, berries, or Nutella (keeping in mind that the ripe bananas are already very sweet).
4. Blend on high speed for 30 more seconds to aerate and thicken the mixture.
5. Pour the mixture into a large container. Optional extra step: At this point, you may want to add some texture with crushed nuts, chocolate chips, or even small chunks of fruit and berries. I opted for walnuts. Stir through so that the texture is fairly even throughout.
6. Freeze the mixture overnight, then serve with optional toppings as desired. I chose to serve my banana ice cream with toasted desiccated coconut and hot chocolate sauce. 

What's great about this recipe is that even though it doesn't contain any fattening, unhealthy ingredients such as thick cream or even full-cream milk, the end result is still creamy and tasty. Although the texture is a bit icier than that of ordinary dairy-based ice cream, it is actually very enjoyable as a sorbet. The taste doesn't suffer from the lack of dairy products, and it's a great vegan alternative. I seriously recommend you to try it at home - it's such an easy, great dessert and you really can't go wrong! You can also experiment with your own flavours and give it a unique twist. Maybe try choc-nut banana popsicles, or blueberry-banana ice cream on waffles, or perhaps even peanut-butter-and-banana ice cream toasties! Don't be afraid to be daring, either - if veganism isn't your schtick, then I've heard bacon and banana are a weirdly wonderful combination. Let your creativity run wild, because the possibilities are endless. Hopefully you'll get as much fun and satisfaction from this recipe as I did this summer. :3 Enjoy!

Happy Tuesday from OIM!

Sydney Night Noodle Markets 2015

Howdy folks, and welcome back to our never-ending food obsession. This week, we headed out to the Sydney Night Noodle Markets, where we feasted on a large array of Asian street snacks. The Night Noodle Markets come around once a year in Hyde Park, just a short walk from Town Hall station, where all of the popular Asian restaurants, cafes, and dessert bars gather to compete for our appetite and attention. Among the 50 big names present this year were Chat Thai, Mamak, One Tea Lounge, and Din Tai Fung. Dessert-lovers were also spoilt for choice, with favourites such as Gelato Messina, Miss Dipity’s, and a special collab between Black Star Pastry and N2 Extreme Gelato.

Of course, with so much to choose from, it is wise to go in with a pre-game strategy. Ours was two-fold: firstly, we agreed that we would share everything so that we could each save our appetite to try more food, and secondly, we decided to prioritise the food that was created specially for the event over the food that is available at restaurants all-year-round. For example, even though Annette was desperate for the famous ramen burger from One Tea Lounge, she felt safe in knowing that she could try it another time, so she was happy to sacrifice it in favour of other more exclusive options. We ended up with the eggplant skewers from Devon Cafe, chicken yakitori skewers from Toko Sydney, and peking duck fries and pork belly bao from Bao Stop.

Devon’s tempura eggplant skewers were definitely our favourite of the night. They were tasty, slightly spicy, and crisp on the outside with a warm gooey centre. The sauce and herbs worked really well to pull all of the flavours and textures together. By contrast, Toko’s chicken yakitori skewers were slightly disappointing; although the chicken was tender and well-grilled, there was nothing original or sensational about the taste and presentation. The queue for Bao Stop was by far the longest, and we knew we had to give it a go. The peking duck fries were very satisfying and great for sharing - fried potato and peking duck, what’s not to like? And although the pork belly bao was quite small for its price, the bun was very soft and fluffy and the filling was really flavoursome.

But of course we couldn’t forget to try the very food our blog was inspired by. Yes, we mean the sweet, creamy goodness that is ice cream. There was no shortage of ice cream at the Night Noodle Markets this year and in fact we were overwhelmed by all the options which ranged from ice cream 'baogers' to bars of layered exotic-sounding gelato. As the daring ice-cream lovers we are, we eventually settled on the wacky ‘Miso Corny’ also from Devon Cafe. Consisting of sweet corn and miso soft serve topped with red bean paste, burnt butter popcorn, cornflakes and lime and coriander syrup in a plastic pipette, you can see how the interesting amalgamation of sweet and savoury flavours immediately drew us in.

Unfortunately, as every brave foodie knows, there is always risk involved when you’re venturing into the unknown, and this time the odds just weren’t in our favour. Let’s start with the dubious positive: the sweet corn soft serve was palatable, and the red bean paste was pleasant when eaten in isolation. The cornflakes gave it a nice crunchy texture, and the lime and coriander syrup was a saving grace as it transformed the strange, disparate flavours into something more fruity and recognisable. Despite this, the elements didn’t really work together, and the best word we could use to describe this dessert is ‘weird’. The miso was undetectable, and we absolutely hated the salty white powder sprinkled over the top, which we guessed to be ground burnt butter popcorn. The texture of the soft serve itself was strangely gooey, unlike any other soft serve we’ve eaten. Much of our time was spent trying out different combinations of elements to find one that was enjoyable, and regrettably, we weren’t able to finish the whole thing. We definitely won’t let this stop us from trying more wacky ice cream desserts in the future, though!

Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the Night Noodle Markets is that collaborations happen on the fly, and you never know what tasty surprise you might find around the corner. Trawling through the blogosphere, we found out about a limited-time partnership between two neighbouring food stalls, Bao Stop and Miss Dipity’s, which apparently resulted in a glorious miso caramel soft-serve bao. By the time we arrived, this elusive dessert was nowhere to be found.

Overall, the Sydney Night Noodle Markets made for a really fun Friday night feast. Although the food was a bit overpriced, this event is as much about eating as it is about trying new things, enjoying the atmosphere and running into old friends (seriously, we saw everyone). And if you’re looking to be introduced to some great new restaurants, or try an original one-off dessert, Hyde Park is certainly the place to be. The Night Noodle Markets close on October 25, so catch them while you can. Happy munching!

Did you miss us? ;)

DIY Ice Cream

If you haven't guessed already from the artwork on this blog, Lillian and I both love ice cream and gelato. We love it in the summer, we love it in the winter, and we especially love trying wacky new flavours and toppings. I remember the first time I tried something really different was at Sydney Festival 2014, when Gelato Messina came out with some really creative carnival-inspired gelato treats disguised in the form of hot dogs and toffee apples. I chose to try a sundae with cheesecake gelato, duck-fat caramel, crushed potato chips and bacon marshmallows, and I was so pleasantly surprised by how the sweet and salty flavours mingled together. Thus began a torrid love affair; whenever I hear about a quirky new ice cream or gelato, whether it's from Aqua S, Stix, N2, Cow & The Moon, or the mighty Messina itself, I crave to try it.

You can imagine my excitement when I discovered DIY ice cream mixes! I'd used cake mixes many times before, but I'd never known that you could make your own ice cream in a similar way. I decided to use Aeroplane Sweet Treats vanilla flavour, which would allow me to create whatever flavour I wanted on top of the mild vanilla base. I spent a long time thinking about which flavour to use, but eventually, (after many many weeks of hard decision-making), I chose to make one batch of coconut flavour and one batch of coffee flavour.

The directions on the back of the box suggest using 50mL of thickened cream and 200mL of milk. The method is so simple that even I couldn't stuff it up: all you need to do is combine the cream and milk with the ice cream mix and whip the mixture on high speed for 4 minutes, so that the texture becomes light like meringue, and then freeze it overnight. For my coconut flavour, I decided to substitute the milk with 200mL of coconut cream, which would give it a richer taste. I also decided to add chocolate chips and crushed roasted cashews to give it some sweetness, nuttiness, and texture. With my coffee batch, I added chocolate chips along with four generous tablespoons of Nescafe Azera premium instant coffee to give it a dark, intense flavour. 

Overall, the ice cream turned out surprisingly well! Although it obviously wasn't as elegant or refined as what you would get from a place such as Gelato Messina, it tasted really nice as I was able to have full control over the sweetness and flavour, and could adjust it to my own personal preferences. The texture was lovely, and the ice cream itself was strangely not that cold - perfect for a winter evening dessert. It was so fun and easy to do, it made me feel like a kitchen goddess even though I'm pretty hopeless at making anything else. If I was going to do it again, I'd love to get more creative with the flavours and toppings, and maybe try giving it a salty twist. I would definitely recommend you give it a go if you're an ice cream fanatic like myself, and maybe you'll even come up with your own daring Messina-esque creations!

HabitRPG - Part 1

For the last month or so, we have been getting slowly addicted to HabitRPG, a site that lets you monitor your good and bad habits, daily tasks, and to-dos by gamifying your life. When you create an account, you get a little pixel person to customize and grow to love <3. You can create your own lists of habits, such as eating healthy food instead of junk food, dailies, such as drinking eight glasses of water, and to-dos, for example, finishing an essay. For every time you tick off a positive activity, you can earn pixel gold which can be spent on equipments and potions that help you recover health quickly or become stronger. You also gain experience, which makes you level up and gives you access to more features such as pets, quests, and mana power. The best part of HabitRPG is that you get to do it with a party of friends, which really helps because you can all motivate each other to get better together. 

It's basically like a self-improvement game that gives you immediate gratification for doing the things you should be doing. You can also use it to track and measure your progress, and make sure you're on track to living the life you want. Who knows, you might even end up craving pixel gold more than the satisfaction of completing your homework! There is always something more to achieve, and they are constantly uploading new content such as special seasonal equipment, new quests, and adorable pixel pets. We get so excited by the endless possibilities! >_<

Personally, we can testify that it really helps to be able to see everything that you need to do in one place, and it is such a satisfying feeling to be able to tick off a difficult task, and be rewarded with something that is visible and measurable. Our habits have definitely improved a lot since we started using the site, and we're really grateful that we stumbled upon it. For anyone who struggles with procrastination or building and sustaining any type of habit, we highly recommend for you to try this. Especially if you love games :3. Play now at www.habitrpg.com. No, this is not a sponsored post - we are genuinely addicted to this site and we want to share it with you!

There is way too much information to explain in one post, so there will be a part 2 coming soon where we'll get more in-depth with the features of gameplay. Stay tuned and stay awesome!

White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney

For the past week I've been suffering from HBS (holiday boredom syndrome) since Annette has been busy at uni so I thought why not drag another friend along to visit an intriguing art gallery I've always wanted to visit? Turned out to be an awesome decision. Situated right in the heart of Sydney only a few minutes walking distance away from Central Station, the White Rabbit Gallery displays contemporary Chinese art. It's current theme is "State of Play," and as you walk through the 4 levels of innovative and meaningful artworks, you can feel yourself going from the playful sense of childhood innocence into a crude, more complex adult world. Even the lightning got darker too. But I really liked the meaning behind some of the artworks, their messages really spoke to me and felt very relatable, especially as I come from a Chinese background myself. Although there were many artworks that stood out artistically, I think my favourite would have to be the cheesy music video based on Michaelangelo's statue "David." It was so hilariously cheesy and cringeworthy it made my day ;) I also really liked the artwork of buckets and the cigarette model made of paper cities.

On the ground floor of the gallery there's a gift shop and tea house. The tea house seemed to be extremely popular because it was pretty packed so my friend and I decided to try it out too - since we were already there anyway. The menu was full of exotic sounding teas but after contemplating for a while, we decided on the "Chrysanthemum and goji berry tea," as well as 2 scones. The tea was good, satisfying for a tea enthusiast like me but nothing too special. The scones on the other hand...they were amazing! I don't normally eat scones since they don't really appeal to me much but I'd totally go back just for the scones - they were actually that delicious :D

So that was basically my day at the White Rabbit Gallery. I'd definitely recommend it as a place to visit if you're in Sydney and you have some spare time to kill. The best part? Admission is free! So there's no reason not to go really. And if you're in that area, you could also visit the nearby Central Park which I reckon is a pretty cool area too. It's got a gallery as well as interesting little shops. That's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Doritos Roulette Review

We both have been dying to try the new Doritos Roulette chips. Finally, today we were able to get our hands on a packet. Here are our thoughts. Do we recommend it? Read on to find out...

The surprise factor was definitely fun and exciting, as we didn't know if the next chip was going to be  your everyday regular cheese-flavoured corn chip or a super spicy mutant version. But we reckon they should definitely have more super spicy chips to raise the stakes and make the chips even more scary to eat.

Overall, great fun for a cold day. 4/5 for effort.