An International Student in Brisbane Pt. 2: Food Glorious Food

You guys.... this is my favourite part of the series (only 2 so far but I already know it's my favourite)

Food glorious food. Brisbane may not be like Sydney and Melbourne where brunch spots are practically everywhere. I personally feel Brisbane needs to up their brunch and dessert game. But that doesn't mean you're out of choices for some good eats.

Here are some of my pick of restaurants to eat in Brisbane (and beyond):


Korean

Dreams of fried chicken#foodblog #foodblogger #brisbanefoodbog #brisbane #brissie #igersbrisbane #hungrykittens #hungrykittensfoodblog #koreanfood #friedchicken

A post shared by Hungry Kittens (@hungrykittens.foodblog) on Jan 7, 2017 at 6:10pm PST

1. Funny Funny (Brisbane CBD)
Address: 85 George St, Brisbane City QLD 4000, Australia
Must order: Great place for Korean fried chicken. 50% off KFC on Wednesdays!

Updates + PULP

Hi all!!! I know, it's been a long time. Not like anyone is reading or waiting for me to post anything but hello vast internet space, how ya doing?

If you remember, I broke my ankle a little more than a year ago. Shit got real - I couldn't walk for months, went for grueling course of physiotherapy and I just had all my ankle's screws and plate fully taken out few weeks ago. Definitely don't miss those times.

Now I'm back baby, however not in full force because I have screwholes in my bones and I can't run/jump for half a year but hey, at least this time I can walk. I had Ellie Goulding serenading me to anesthesia-induced sleep in the O.R with "Love Me Like You Do". I felt light headed and like the last time, BAM fell asleep. Woke up horribly nauseated unlike the last time where I felt like I woke up from a fulfilling sleep, but this one felt more like a extremely horrible hangover (would be the first I've ever had).

Also in less than a month, I will be embarking on a new chapter of my life: AUSTRALIA. So I'm getting ready to head off to the land down under, filled with extremely good-looking/fit people and mysterious cringe-worthy insects - both of which I'm intimidated by.

Also had a catch-up with some ex-uni mates after a long time recuperating at the hospital and at home. And I'm so impressed by the the photography opportunities at PULP by Papa Pahelta (Bangsar). The most important thing in photography to me is the lighting. Without good lighting your pictures will suck. Sure, editing can save it but it will never reach the full potential good lighting can bring to a photo. And what better lighting than natural light from the sun y'all. Now count how many times I mentioned the word 'lighting'.

One thing I disliked was that in spite of the large space they had, there was still lack of seats. Also, they need blinds for one of their big windows. At this time of the year, the sun is out to play and it is just too glaring and hot to sit at that location (and we couldn't move because of lack of space!)

Nitro coffee. First few sips in, surprisingly light unlike Bean Reserve's.

Very rich and decadent chocolate truffle cake. Very pretty but not the best chocolate cake around. 

Impressive latte art on hot chocolate.

This is the Hartmann Lot 22. She's smooth.

Not my salad.

Smell y'all later.

Fire noodle challenge

I first heard of this challenge on Bubzbeauty's video where she and her husband (Tim) tried it, and Bubz didn't even break a sweat! Amazing. So I got all over-confident and thought nah can't be THAT spicy because I can take spicy. I love spicy!

But on a scale of 1 to 10, this was probably an 8 for me. The noodles was actually pretty delicious, cooked al dente with a good flavour, but it was too spicy for me to slowly savour it. If you want to take on the challenge, you can get it at the Korean mart in Ampang. Never thought I'd find it there!

I suggest you get a cup of milk ready on standby. I underestimated how spicy it was going to be and had no emergency drink ready. I don't remember if I pooped fire, but be ready for that too.

AvocaNO #2 - Avocado toast (kimchi and grilled cheese)

With a little experimentation, curiosity and craziness, I found out that avocados go well with something I really love: KIMCHI - the love of my life (among many others). If you know me well, you know I love Korean food and that includes the glorious fermented cabbage, kimchi. Good kimchi gives you a kick in the tastebuds, a real party in your mouth. It's got sour, spicy and crunchy all there at the same time. And as I said earlier, I don't particularly love avocados. But I'm willing to try almost anything to make the eating smoother and less gross.

I like to pair kimchi with everything I can. Rice, noodles, yam cake... you name it. So naturally I tried to pair kimchi with my smashed avocados on toast instead of adding salt and pepper (I don't even like pepper so that's a bust). You must be thinking, how can this possibly taste good. Surprisingly it did and it worked out so well! Kimchi has a very strong and distinct taste, while in my opinion avocado has a more subtle flavour. So instead of the usual salt and pepper, I used kimchi to enhance the overall taste. The kimchi did not take away the quiet taste of the avocado and is basically a substitute for the minimum salt and pepper.

Avocado Kimchi Toast
Bread
1 Avocado
A lot of kimchi
That's it
This doesn't even require a written recipe

Avocado grilled cheese sandwich
1/2 avocado (if you love avocado, go all out and use 1 if you want to)
A lot of cheese (I used shredded mozzarella from the packet)
2 slices of bread
Butter

My second avocado toast is pretty common - avocado grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately, I put too little cheese and 1 avocado was actually quite a lot for a sandwich so I didn't like it that much. I was hoping for the melted cheese to envelope the whole sandwich but clearly I didn't put enough!

Ingredients: cheese, bread, avocado, butter

Sandwich the cheese and smashed avocado together

Place the sandwich (buttered side down)

When golden brown, flip your sandwich to other buttered side.
Tip: Use a plate or something with a bit of weight, and place it on your sandwich to ensure the heat fully grills the whole sandwich.

And there ya have it.

Tip to self: ADD MORE CHEESE next time.

AvocaNO (for people who don't like avocados) #1 - Tuna avocado pasta

Personally, I don't really like avocados. THERE I SAID IT. Avocado-lovers come at me. There's very little taste, the texture is like butter and I don't like the texture of it in my mouth. I'm fine with guacamole when it's mixed up with all kinds of different things that it tastes more than just avocado. And except when there was one time I ate sliced avocado with toast in Australia which was actually tolerable. The texture wasn't as gross as when I make it. BUT, having said that I do know how beneficial and nutritious it is for my health. Those healthy fats are good for me. So I have been trying to make myself love avocados by eating more of them.

My second struggle with avocados is real, and I'm sure it is relatable to everyone: Picking a good, ripe avocado. I usually pick the ones that are going to be ripe in a few days because I gotta plan my avocado recipe out. It's always hit and miss (more misses than hits) when I open the avocados, only to find the flesh still hard, rotten/too soft or just not at the right condition to be eaten.

Thirdly, avocado is so expensive. 1 avocado here costs an average of RM6! It's not something I can purchase and make very often, so when I do I gotta make sure it's yummy and not wasted.

I know there are recipes like this out there, but my thought process went something like this. I had some cans of tuna at home, untouched and asking to be used. People usually mix tuna with mayonnaise and I don't like mayonnaise (at this point, I know I may sound like a picky person when it comes with my food but I'm not!) mainly because of the taste, texture and how fattening it is. I try my best to substitute it with a healthier alternative, greek yoghurt (which also isn't cheap).

So I bought 3 avocados for a cheaper price because they were starting to ripen and the supermarket was trying to clear off their stock. I used the first avocado to make avocado kimchi toast which will be the next post in my avocano post series.

I just used the second avocado to make tuna avocado pasta. Something which I will definitely make again in the future. It's an even healther alternative to greek yoghurt and mayonnaise! It provides the smooth texture and acts as a glue for all my ingredients. There are other avocado pasta recipes out there but this is my own improvised recipe. The recipe is based on my taste, preference and portion. I put some salt, and if it's not enough I add a bit more in until it tastes right.

Tuna avocado pasta
Ingredients (serves 2 people):
10 Roma tomatoes halved
3/4 stalk of celery diced into tiny cubes
A pinch of pepper
1 t/b salt
1 t/b sugar
2/3 t/b lemon juice
2 tsp oregano
2 t/b Greek yoghurt
1 tsp dijon mustard (I wasn't even sure if mine was expired lol)
1 avocado, mashed
1 can of tuna (I used the Ayam brand one soaked in extra virgin olive oil, I don't think it matters)
2 servings of pasta (I used farfalle, type of pasta probably doesn't matter either)

There's no rocket science involved here. Just cook your pasta in salted water till al dente, mix all the other ingredients together. As simple as that. I love this recipe because I don't mind eating avocados like this. Even though my recipe is as good as it is, I think it can be further enhanced but I haven't found out how right now. Maybe a bit more lemon juice or onions? It just needs a bit more kick (by not adding mustard or pepper because I don't like both). If you have any ideas, do tell me!

#carmeneatsclean

Carmen Eats Clean: Natural Banana 'pancakes'

Personally, I can't really label it as pancakes because it doesn't contain any flour that gives it that fluffiness, which is the cornerstone of pancakes IMO.

Today, I followed Blogilates' recipe in making easy banana pancakes.

I used 2 eggs and 1 banana, as stated in the recipe. I didn't have a masher or a whisk, so it was slightly difficult for me to mash the bananas with a ladel. Oh well, that's morning arm exercise for you.

Drizzled some good ol' olive oil in the pan and spread the banana-egg mixture on it. These babies cook pretty quickly so I had to keep my eye on them the whole time, getting ready to flip it when it's done.

It is a very simple quick way to whip up breakfast which is right for me, because sleep is more important than breakfast and I'd rather spend precious time in bed than making an elaborate breakfast platter in the morning.

However, this was basically glorified sweet banana omelettes. The fact hit me only when I started frying them, because in the video they looked like pancakes! With a rounded circumference and that light brownish-white colour pancakes have... Thought mine would turn out the same way, but it really just looked like omelettes, yellow and eggy (Disclaimer: I dislike omelettes so this was clearly displeasing to me). Could also be because I suck at cooking, but I digress.

But hey it actually tastes good if I forget the fact it is an omelette. I can convince myself to live on it if I was in stuck in a zombie apocalypse and only had eggs and banana for survival.*

*Let's hope Blogilates never reads this post. In the event that she does... I love you! Don't hate me!

Carmen Eats Clean: Grilled Vegetables

Yes, Carmen is trying to eat clean. Note that 'trying' is the key word.

So the day before I went to Ben's General Food Store to check on their 50% off produce. Being the Asian that I am (and having a frugal mom), I was happy to see brinjals priced at RM2! I think that's pretty worth it for 3 moderately sized brinjals, right? Got some mushrooms and baby spinach too.

This didn't turn out as 'clean' as I wanted to because the amount of olive oil I had to mix with each batch of vegetables going in the oven was probably excessive, but I didn't want it to stick to the foil! I put too little oil the first round and my julienned brinjal pieces stuck to the foil.

I followed this recipe (not really a recipe, more of a tutorial lol). I know putting vegetables in an oven isn't rocket science. But I am horrible at cooking and I wasn't going to take any chances.

Some Tapping Tapir soda to cool off the heat

I used crushed garlic-infused olive oil to lubricate the vegetables. Added salt, pepper, dried oregano and parsley (expired, but still usable I guess?) for seasoning. And screw using a basting brush, I didn't have one.

Before I put my vegetables in the oven, I googled thoroughly on how long I should leave the vegetables in the oven for. In the end, I gave up on following online instructions. I felt that it's mostly trial and error, and from your own observation. Also depending on your oven. I used a pathetic toaster oven! Small, but does the job (very inefficiently I might add, it took me almost 3 hours to grill all my vegetables). Different vegetables have different cooking times, and not to mention I didn't cut them all the exact same way. The longer you let it grill, the more caramelized (therefore, sweeter) it is. But you also run the risk of burning your vegetables like I did!

The end result:

Mmmmm. I like the taste of grilled, caramelized vegetables. I almost burnt my baby carrots from leaving it in the oven too long, but it came out sweet and juicy. The mushrooms were in a separate bowl so it was left out in the picture. But those tasted good too :)

So there you have it. I usually can't cook to save my life. I previously made tuna sandwiches and instant noodles, and it tasted disgusting. Grilled vegetables however... not bad! If I had a much bigger oven, I would roast/grill them more frequently.

Making Candy Sushi

You might've heard of Kracie's Popin' Cookin DIY candy sets. I was watching Youtube videos of how they made the candy sushi, burgers, ramen and all kinds of interesting stuff. Here's HowToCookThat trying the different popin cookin sets:

It looked pretty fun to make! So I decided to try it out myself. It is not easy to find these Popin Cookin' sets here in Malaysia. I read that they used to sell it in Japanese fairs in Isetan but that was years ago. Besides, I can't look for them in malls anyways thanks to my broken ankle. So I bought mine from Japanese DIY Kits based in Singapore, and got them delivered to my front door. It took awhile, and I was worried my package was lost on the way, but in the end I got it!

The whole box is in Japanese, but even without a single piece of knowledge of the Japanese language, you can still make out what you're suppose to do and which powder belongs to which box thanks to the graphics. They're fairly simple to make. Put in the appropriate amount of water, put in the powder, mix, wait to harden if needed, and assemble.

Besides everything provided in the box, you have to get scissors and a cup of water. Inside the box is colourful packets filled with candy powder. Keep the plastic because you can use that as display. Besides the powder, it also comes with this suction-water thingy, which proves to be very useful when it comes to more accurate, controlled measurements.

For instructions, look at the back of the box, or search up the many Youtube video tutorials available. More importantly, improvisation is needed because sometimes I feel like the water level indicated is not enough because there's so much powder so I add more water. It turned out fine! Things may look very watery for awhile, but it'll harden and turn to jelly.

There are also measurements like how long the 'seaweed' (which is actually sugus-like candy) and how big the rice should be. I was overzealous and pulled my seaweed candy too long, leading to it almost tearing. Don't do that.

Look at the cute balls of rice! I love the detailed ridges of the 'egg' and 'tuna' slices.

The coolest of them all however, was the fish roe. Apparently, the orange liquid is made of some kind of jelling agent and it solidifies and becomes gelatinous in the presence of the clear liquid in the box above it (because it contains calcium).

Excuse the portrait orientation of the video. I don't even know why I filmed it in portrait, what a rookie mistake.

So this is the end result:

I started out making these wanting them to look perfect. I think I'm proud of it (except or the seaweed)! They all taste like grape-flavoured candy/bubblegum. And if you don't mix well, you would probably get a taste of the grainy texture from the unmixed powder. The roe is my favourite. The rest like the 'tuna', 'egg' and the rice taste just okay, after a few bites I felt sated and didn't want to eat anymore.

I think if I wanted to try another Popin Cookin' set, I would try the hamburger one because it looks interesting as I hear it's savoury (but doesn't taste so good). And who wouldn't like miniature hamburgers?!