Breakfast at Al Aseel, Greenacre

Mr FBC and I have a lot of things in common. But, there is one significant thing in life that we just don’t agree on. It’s not about religion, having kids or political views – it’s the importance (or unimportance) of eating breakfast. I’m a pro-breakfast person and Mr FBC is not. His first ‘meal’ of the day is his morning coffee. He tells me he generally can’t stomach anything until lunch. He’s trained himself over the years to eat something if we go out for ‘breakfast’ (before 10am), but it’s usually not more than toast or banana bread.  On my birthday earlier this year, Mr FBC put aside his issues with breakfast and surprised me by taking me to an early Lebanese breakfast at Al Aseel in Greenacre. Ahh - true love.
We’ve been to Al Aseel, a Lebanese restaurant in Greenacre, many a times for either dinner or lunch. I’ve previously eyed the breakfast section of the menu a coupled of times and have been intrigued ever since. It’s always fascinating to discover the equivalent of vegemite on toast or sultana bran with milk in other cuisines and cultures.

We opted to try a few things from the menu in order to get a good taste of breakfast – Lebanese style. Funnily enough, the waiter tried to reassure us that we could order anything from the menu (including the mixed meat plate etc from the dinner section) but we insisted we were after the breakfast items. I’m not sure if a meaty shish kebab or lamb kofta would sit right with me at that time of the morning.

Just like at dinner time, we were brought out a complimentary dish of tomatoes, olives and picked cucumbers to snack on along with a basket full of fresh Lebanese bread. I always make the mistake of snacking too much on these accompaniments.   

Complimentary tomato, olives and pickled cucumber

Copious amounts of Lebanese bread

First dish to try was Foul (pronouced 'ful'), the Lebanese equivalent to baked beans. This is a hearty breakfast dish of cooked and mashed fava beans mixed with olive oil, onion, garlic and lemon juice with quite a thick consistency. We ordered a small portion which was more than enough. The foul was delicious scooped up with pieces of Lebanese bread.

Foul

Next dish to try was Shanglish. This is a dried country style yoghurt served with red onions, diced tomatoes and cucumber. The dried yoghurt pretty much tastes like fetta cheese. It was a lovely combination and worked really well sandwiched between bits of Lebanese bread. We couldn't finish this dish as there was just a bit too much cheese, so we did the remaining portion home. The leftover shanglish worked perfectly for a late afternoon snack with lavosh flatbread.

Shanglish

The last dish to try was a large bowl of Fatteh, which could best be described as the Lebanese equivalent to a bowl of cereal or porridge.  This savoury dish, served warm, is a soupy mixture of chick peas, garlic, creamy yoghurt with a layer of crunchy fried pieces of Lebanese bread. It's topped with a sprinkling of toasted almonds and pine nuts, spring onions, paprika and olive oil. 

Bowl of Fatteh

I'm not sure if I quite managed to convince Mr FBC to join the breakfast club but even for a non-breakfast man he was reasonably impressed with the offering.  The dishes were very tasty and  filling. However, some may say too filling. Not being used to having too many legumes for breakfast, Mr FBC and I were really full for the majority of the day and needed to skip lunch. Best not to start the day with a hearty Lebanese breakfast if you're anticipating a reasonably sized lunch. A lesson for next time!

Al Aseel

Shop 4, 173 Waterloo Rd

Greenacre NSW 2190

Phone (02) 9758 6744

Sun-Thurs 9am-9pm; Fri-Sat 9am-10pm

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Fondling the Fondue - Bringing in the New Year with a Fondue Party

I’m a big fan of cheese, especially melted cheese. So it’s natural that I would be very attracted to the thought of a large pot of melted gooey oozy cheese - a la “fondue”.

Oddly enough, Mr FBC and I once went to a Swiss restaurant in Sydney* which listed cheese fondue on its menu. We tried ordering it but the waiter actually strongly recommended us against ordering it as he didn’t think we (as Fondue virgins) could handle the intensity of the cheese and wine flavour.

We’ve always regretted our decision (and lack of assertiveness) so we were pretty excited when a fondue opportunity arises when our close friends, Doctor J  and  the Pizza Man, decide to host a Fondue Party to welcome in the New Year.  I think I may have contributed to the idea with some subtle coaxing at an earlier dinner party when we were coming up with ideas (he, he!). Ok.. I may have just screamed out. FONDUE PARTY. 

Prior to the day, we all scoured the cupboards of our parents and various op shops for fondue party essentials. This arduous search resulted in the following finds: 

1. A large 70’s crockpot - the fascade sort looked like lobster shell. Do you see the similarity? 

2. Authentic Fondue sticks

3. An original 1970's Fondue Cookbook - 'Fondue Cookery' by Alison Burt

The Fondue Cookery cookbook was an absolute gem and provided all the necessary info on making the perfect fondue and plenty of fondue recipes. I think I saw a Curry Fondue recipe ?

We used the Traditional Fondue Recipe (see below) which used a mixture of Gruyere and Emmenthal cheese, plus some wine, lemon and cornflour. You were also meant to have kirsch, a cherry liqueur, but we didn’t have any to use.

The End Result

As for our dipping weapons of choice? We had a variety of fondue accompaniments ranging from typical, such as cubes of cut up French breadstick and vegetables to the more unusual such as cornichorns and chorizo. For future reference I would recommend using quite hard bread as the soft bread tends to drown in the cheese. And if you were wondering how the chorizo went. Well… it was really a salty cheesy explosion in your mouth!

If you really like your cheese then I’m pretty sure you could dip anything into the fondue. One thing I might try for next time is cooked potato (as recommended by the Fondue Cookbook).

Mr FBC displaying Fondue dipping action

It was so much fun to dip our fondue sticks into the pot of cheesy fondue. Truly a cheese lover’s heaven and I could have continued devouring melted cheese coated items all night. However, be warned – the fondue is quite heavy with an overpowering flavour so it’s not for the light hearted. Most people at the party could only manage a few cheese coated items.

Later in the evening and continuing on the fondue theme, we moved from melted cheese to melted chocolate. Consulting the ever informative ‘Fondue Cookery' cookbook again, we opted for the ‘Milk Chocolate Fondue’ (see recipe below). This fondue was relatively easy to make – milk chocolate and cream. Using our trusty fondue forks, we eagerly dipped an array of marshmallows, strawberries and cherries into the sweet, luscious chocolate.

At one stage, I nearly lost a marshmallow to the depths of the chocolate fondue. Supposedly, I was told that if a girl loses something in the fondue then she has to kiss all the guys in the room? Luckily, a nearby girlfriend helped me rescue my drowning marshmallow with our collective fondue fork – phew!

Chocolate Fondue

This was a wonderful way to bring in the New Year – fondue stick in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other:)  Now that Mr FBC and I are fondue connoisseurs, I’m wondering if we should venture back to the Swiss Restaurant* and order Fondue safely in the knowledge that we can absolutely positively handle the CHEESE.

Fondue Neuchatel (Traditional Cheese Fondue Recipe)

From Fondue Cookbook by Alison Burt

This recipe serves 4 (but in reality it could probably serve as many as 10 if people are only have a few fondue bits and pieces)

Ingredients

1 clove garlic1 ½ cups dry white wine

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 cups grated Emmenthal cheese

2 cups rgated Gruyere cheese

1 tablespoon cornflour

2 tablespsoons kirsch

White pepper, grated nutmeg and paprika to taste

French bread, for serving (or whatever takes your fancy)

Instructions

1. Rub the inside of the fondue pot with a clove of garlic

2. Heat the wine with the lemon juice carefully

3. Add the cheese gradually stirring continuously in a 'figure of eight' motion (I assume this just helps to prevent the cheese from clumping?)

'Figure of Eight' Stirring Action

4. When mixture is bubbling, add the kirsch and cornflour, blended together.

5. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes and then season to taste

6. Serve with French bread cut into 1 inch cubes or whatever takes your fancy

Milk Chocolate Fondue

Also from 'Fondue Cookery' by Alison Burt

Serves 4

Ingredients

230g milk chocolate (we used Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate)

½ Cup cream

2 tablespoons kirsch

Marshmallows, strawberries and cherries. The Fondue Cookery also recommends using cake and biscuits (I like the sound of that!)

Instructions

1.Grate chocolate and place into fondue pot with the cream

2. Stir well and heat gently, stirring until chocolate is melted

3. Add the kirsh and mix in

4. Serve with marshmallows etc

* it was the Eiger Swiss Restaurant if you were wondering. Btw, I had a look at the menu online and they even have a warning about the fondue on their website.

Easy Peasy Cooking - Shortbread Lemon Tarlets

There are many people in the world who enjoy the art of cooking or baking and find it to be most satisfying to be able to create elaborate dishes. Some people say cooking helps them destress and mentally unwind from the chaos of the day. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. I absolutely adore food and but I'd much rather someone else made the food for me toe eat.
When it comes to cooking, my style could best be described as 'easy peasy'. Recipes with minimal steps and minimal fuss will win me over - every time.
So, when it came to picking a dish to bring along to the recent Sydney Foodbloggers Picnic, I thought my shortbread lemon tartlets would do the trick.

It's a really easy recipe which I found from the Joy of Baking and it feels like your eating mini cheesecakes. You can make the tart shells a few days in advance or you could make a double batch and freeze them. I recommend making the lemon filling a day in advance so that it has time to thicken.

Easy Peasy Shortbread Lemon Tartlets Recipe

Ingredients
Shortbread Tarts:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt

Cream Cheese Filling:

250g Philadelphia cream cheese - softened
1 can (395g) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
p.s I always end up with heaps of leftover filling so you can always try halving the filling quantities.
Toppings: Whichever berry takes your fancy...Strawberries, Raspberries or Blueberries.

Easy Peasey Instructions
Makes 36 mini tarts... but I always find I have quite a bit of filling leftover.

For the Shortbread tarts:
• Lightly spray with a nonstick canola spray a 36 miniature muffin tins
• Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
• Beat the butter and sugar together (approximately two minutes) with an eletric mixer. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix just together. It might be a bit sticky to start with but it will firm up.
• Divide the dough mixture into 36 even pieces and place one ball of dough in the centre of each muffin tin. Press the dough up the sides of each muffin tin
• Place muffin tin with the unbaked shells into the freezer for about 10 minutes. This will help to prevent the shells puffing up too much in the oven.
• Take out of freezer and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the shells are lightly browned. At about the 10 minutes into baking, take the shells out and lightly prick each shell to prevent the shell from puffing. Prick the shells again after 5 minutes if they still look like they are puffing up.
• Take out from oven and cool. Once cooled, remove from the pan.

To make the cream cheese filling:
• With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy. Add the condensed milk, lemon juice, zest, and vanilla and mix until just until smooth.

• Place filling to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until serving time. For the best results, try and make the filling at least a day in advance to allow it to firm up and to let all the lemony flavours mix together.

To make your easy peasey shortbread tartlet creations:
• Using two tea spoons, fill each of tart shells with the filling and then top with a berry of your choice. I've used strawberries and blueberries before but I find raspberries make the cutest looking tartlets.

I've made these tartlets a few times and found they are perfectly bite sized for a girly afternoon tea and look fabulous placed on a 3 tiered cake stand. Easy peasey!

New In Town, Newtown (Polish Restaurant) (28 August 2010)

New in town is 'New in Town' in Newtown.

I've been waiting to use that line ever since Mr FBC and I (along with our merry group of Fat Belly Clubbers) visited New In Town, a Polish restaurant located on King Street, Newtown. New in Town replaces the 'Chocolate Dog Cafe' - you may remember this as the 'cafe by day/mexican by night' place on the southern end of King Street.

It's been awhile since a Fat Belly Club outing has been arranged for our friends and it's always great to share the a new culinary adventure with our best buds. To make sure we tasted as much of the menu as possible, I make the executive decision to opt for the $50 set menu. I'm not 100% sure if the set menus are actually listed on the restaurant menu. I just found out about it after enquiring when making my booking and was kindly emailed a copy of the menu for my perusal. I think there is also a $40 menu, but for $10 more you get to have pork knuckle and duck. It's a no brainer really.

WARNING: the set menu contains copius amounts of food. If you dare to try it, make sure to come here on an EMPTY STOMACH. Don't worry... if you can't finish it, they will kindly 'doggy' bag it for you if you ask.

Wedliny - Smoked cold meats served with horseradish and Polish bread (top right)

Smalec - Spiced pork lard  with fried sausage, onion and marjoram served with bread and pickles  (bottom left), Kompot Fruit Drink (bottom Left)

Our first dishes to arrive are a couple of hearty polish starters, including Wedliny - smoked cold meats with horseradish and polish bread (which I think could be a type of rye bread), as well as Smalec - pork lard spiced with fried sausage. Both were delicious and a great. However, I think we filled up on the bread too quickly. Damn! The pork lard is also not for the faint hearted - it's 100% pure fat but is delectable in small quantities. I'm assuming it would be a great way to efficiently build up stocks of fat if you were heading into a cold Polish winter.  
Also brought to the table are jugs of Kompot - a Polish fruit drink which tastes a bit like watered down Ribena. It's refreshing and much need after the pork lard.

Pierogi - Dumplings galore

I wonder if dumplings are the 'spring roll' equivalent for Polish cuisine? Next up were platters of fried dumplings, called Pierogi, filled with an array of fillings including: meat, sauerkraut and mushroom, and white cheese and potato. The dumplings were accompanied by pots of sourcream which worked really well with the dumplings. 

 Placki ziemniaczane – potato pancakes with mushroom sauce                 

The potato pancakes were beautifully crisp and went well with the mushroom sauce. There's more vibrantly pink sauerkraut and sour cream, if you need it.



Beef goulash with potatoes dumplings

More hearty food arrives for the table of fat belly clubbers. Next up is beef goulash and potato dumplings. The goulash is rich and filled with tender beef. It's wonderfully accompanied by plump potato dumplings.

Bigos - a hunter stew

A crowd favourite (ok... welll my favourite) is Bigos, a hunter stew made of smoked meats, sauerkraut, red wine and spices. It's hearty and flavoursome.

Golonka w piwie - Pork Knuckle baked in Polish beer

When it comes to pork knuckle (Golonka w Piwie), size does matter. This large chunk of meat is not for the faint hearted. We were given 3 pork knuckles to share between 10 people and we  struggled to get through the meat. Many of the Fat Belly Clubbers thought they could take on the pork knuckle and devour it... but alas it was not meant to be. It was just too much meat for of all us. Pork Knuckle -1 , Fat Belly Clubbers - 0.

We're all getting pretty full by now but the food keeps coming.  A platter of golabki arrives, which is soft baked cabbage rolls filled with spiced meat and rice and toped with a luscious tomato sauce.  

Golabki - soft baked cabbage 

The last main dish to arrive is Kaczka - roast duck stuffed with apples, cranberries and glazed with honey. There's plenty of moist delicious duck meat and the sweet glaze is delectable but we're all so full that it's hard to eat too much more.  I'm afraid we didn't do the dish justice.

Kaczka - Roast duck stuffed with apples, cranberries, topped with honey 

We make an executive decision to give our stomachs a bit of a break before moving onto dessert. The time gives us an opportunity to look around the restaurant. When we first arrived, the place was absolutely packed but our table seems to have out eaten everyone else and there is only one other couple left in the restaurant.
The service tonight is very friendly and accommodating. All the waitresses are kind enough to explain each dish to us. At one point, the chef comes out to ask us what we thought of the food and which dishes were our favourites. It's a lovely gesture. 

Pierogi z wisniami - Sour Cherry Dumplings (bottom left), Sernik and Szarlotka -Cheese Cake and Apple pie (top right)

After a rest, we venture onto the Polish desserts. The dessert in the set menu is meant to be a Poppyseed cake. However, we manage to swap this for mixed dessert platters for the table which included slices of Sernik- polish style cheesecake and Szarlotka - apple pie and a plate of Pierogi z wisniami - polish dumplings filled with sour cherries. The dessert dumplings were magical with the filling of juicy sour cherries.

Are you full yet just by looking at all that food. We certainly were and by the end of the night, true to our name, we felt every bit like the Fat Belly Club. Burp!

New In Town

549 King St

ph (02) 95652526

Tues-Sun 8am-3pm, 6pm-10pm.

BYO $3.50 corkage

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Sydney Food Bloggers 'Mad Hatters' Picnic at Centennial Park

Fantastic 'Sydney Food Bloggers Cake' by Anna from Diary of a Lady Bird

I love food. I love taking photos of  food. I AM A FOOD BLOGGER.

Mr FBC and I are getting use to telling people that we're food bloggers. Our close friends know not to start their meals until we've had an opportunity to photograph it. We're also getting use to the unusual looks you get in restaurants when you start taking photos of our food.  But every so often, we just wished we knew more people who just understood our passion for food and our excessive need for taking photos of the food we eat. People who just get it.

Last weekend, we had the wonderful opportunity to meet 40 or so likeminded Sydney based food bloggers who gathered at Centennial Park for the ‘Sydney Food Bloggers ‘Mad Hatters’ Spring Picnic’ (organised by the lovely Billy from A Table for Two  and Karen from Citrus and Candy).
It was so great to meet all the faces behind the food blogs that I’ve been reading for the past year or so. Even though we were mostly all strangers, everyone was so friendly and the conversation was really easy - food focussed obviously. Oddly enough, you just never know who you'll meet at these things. I even bumped into an old high school friend who I hadn't seen for years - a girl from the blogging crew at yayas yum yums.  Small world!

What would a food bloggers picnic be without ‘food’ for people to photograph. There was a beautiful array of delicous looking food to share.

Above is just a snap shot of the spread of food. I think there were two more picnic blankets

worth of food.  And, here are some close up shots....

Cute Tea-ramisu in Chocolate teacups (by Tammi from Insatiable Munchies)

 Lemon ricotta cheesecake  (by Table Nosh)

Smoky Bacon and Chilli Caramel Slice (by Helen from Grab Your Fork

I didn't try as many things as I would have liked. I think I had too much food to gawk at. I was just overwhelmed by it all and oddly lost my appetite. I did try a slice of the Smoky Bacon and Chilli Caramel Slice. The combination sounds so wrong, but it tastes so right. Yum.



The event was sponsored by a range of generous sponsors, including Nuffnang. There were lots of prizes to be won, including prizes for the best mad hat, the best sweet dish, the best savoury dish and the best 'blue' dish. You will notice a bit of the 'blue' theme in the next few photos. Someone even brought in a huge bucket of 'blue' sangria (sorry - don't have a photo of that one).

Cute 'mad hatter' themed cupcakes (from yayas yum yums) 

Cookie Monster Cupcakes by  nommy nom nom

Cutesy Pie Cake Popsicles by Sugarlace

Close up of the Cake Popsicle

Mr FBC and I were racking our brains all week trying to decide what to make. We finally chose two dishes (one sweet and savoury) which were cute and bite size - Mini Burgers and Shortbread Tartlets. Perfect picnic food. We'll post recipes soon - they are super easy to make.  I even managed to make little cardboard signs for us using the new 'alphabet' stamps I recently bought.

Mini Burgers (by Mr FBC)

Shortbread Tartlets (made by Mrs FBC)

It was great to just meet all the food bloggers and share their gorgeous food. However, our day was topped off by winning one of the prizes. Our Shortbread Tartlets won second prize in the Sweet dish category. Yay! It was a total shock as there were sooooo many beautiful and tasty sweet dishes. Our prize was fantastic - it was a $150 voucher to Chophouse at Bligh Street, Sydney. Mr FBC and I have already perused the menu and we're looking forward to our meaty extravaganza.

Lovely to meet you all and hope to see you soon - Mr and Mrs FBC xx

Second Prize - $150 voucher to Chophouse

Food, glorious food

Jimmy's Recipe Malaysia - Galleries Victoria Sydney CBD

MR FBC EATS: A quick lunch report from Sydney CBD lunch hotspots 

Murtabak ($6.50) topped with a Curry Puff ($1.80)

One of my favourite lunch spots is Jimmy's Recipe Malaysia located at the Galleries Victoria on George Street. For lunch the other day I had the Murtabak, essentially a filled roti canai with curry sauce. The curry puff was my own addition.

It looked small, but it turned out to be packed full of meat. In the end it was a real protein hit. I definitely didn't need the curry puff. You live and learn!

The Galeries Victoria

Ground Floor, Shop RC16, 500 George St

Sydney NSW 2000

Ph (02) 9267 2288

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