La Luna and Flying High

La Luna Bistro320 Rathdowns StreetCarlton North, (03) 9349 4888

Recently Daz celebrated his 28th birthday. Hes always looking for a thrill, he absolutely loves flying and would probably order steak at any given chance, so I decided to get him something that he would never forget, an acrobatic flying session and dinner at La Luna. I thought about getting him steak to eat inside the plane but thought that the pilot might get a little distracted, who knows he may have wanted one for himself!

The dinner almost didn't happen. After his 40 minute gut flipping, intense and sweaty flying escapade, he felt so sick that we almost called the dinner off, the actual flying didn't make him sick so much, it was the straight but long drive back from Traralgong that made his head woozy. Luckily a quick snooze and a dose of medication.....downed with a ginger beer set him straight and we set off for meat.

We started the meal with a few oysters. Nothing better than chewing into that fresh meaty flesh to get all the stomach juices flowing.

Next we had House made cured meats, on this night it was Prosciutto, with poached pear, extra virgin olive oil & crispy croutons. The meat was nice and fresh. V1 had never had good quality prosciutto before and by the end of this dish I suspect she will no longer be buying her cured ham from the Coles deli.

Also for entree we shared a Double baked cheese soufflé with garlic croutons. This was so good. The souffle was so light, you could even see the beautiful big air pockets withing the souffle. I make my own version of this, but mine comes no where near the caliber of this dish. It was delicious, unsurprisingly it disappeared very quickly.

For mains the boys went for the meat. Surprise surprise. La Luna prides themselves on aging their meat on premises, and only have a few cuts available on each night. On this particular night the boys got a scotch fillet, Char-grilled with a creamy buttery mash and pepperonata. I asked the waiter if it was possible to bring Daz's plate with a sprig of parsley on top....considering it was his birthday he should get a dish with a little more effort right? The chefs were so sweet that they actually put the parsley on his steak, class all the way. The boys both jumped into their steaks and all you could hear were moans of enjoyment. So I'm guessing that they liked their steaks.

When I was looking at the menu at home I had decided that I would get the Crackling wrapped loin of roast pork, mash, cabbage, apple salad, red wine jus. When it came to ordering, ALL the girls wanted this dish, so being me AND a food blogger I changed my mind and ordered something else......BIG MISTAKE!! The pork was fantastic. The crackling was so crispy, the apple salad was tart and complimentary to the pork. I don't know weather I was dreaming, but when I had a taste, the pork tasted like it had been marinated it lemon zest, it added such a nice undertone. I think I will try that myself at home. Everyone felt so sorry for me that I had changed my mind that they all gave me a bite from their plate. I think all those small bites combined equaled a whole pork dish in itself. Maybe I should try that more often and get a free meal by just eating a small amount from everyones plate.

As a side we ordered some Sautéed kipfler potatoes, garlic & parsley. They were really nice, however I think everyone was too distracted by their main dishes. The potatoes ended up hanging around until dessert. We tried to convince the waitress that we were going to eat them, but sadly I think more than half remained in the bowl.

I got the john dory fillets with a vegetable salad. I enjoyed the dish, not so much for the actual fish, but the vegetable salad was really good. The squash was cooked so tenderly, but still had a firm bite. I could have happily had an entire plate of that salad. Although the dish was very good, it was still no pork!!

Dessert!! Oh dessert was SOOOO good. I thoroughly recommend going for their cakes if you are having a birthday at La Luna. Cakeage costs $4.50 per person, or $70 for a cake of your choice that they make on premises. I went with the second choice, for 2 reasons really. 1) less fuss if they handle the whole cake thing and 2) it would probably cost me $70 for a cake in the first place PLUS cakeage. I went with a Bombe Alaska, everyone loves a little danger and who doesn't like ice cream? The cake was delicious!! The outside was so fluffy and marshmallowy, followed by a thin layer of vanilla sponge, then a rich creamy ice cream dotted with crunchy toffee. The birthday boy loved it, and so did all the guests, so it was a win win situation. The staff at La Luna were fantastic, they cut the remaining cake into portions, and each of the guests got some to take home. Once again another great touch.

On the night our group was extremely loud, and dare I say a little obnoxious - mainly me!! But the staff were fantastic, I really can not rave about them enough. I've seen some bad reviews concerning La Luna, but I think the old saying "you gotta try it for yourself" is totally true here. I'll be back for sure, probably to order the pork and a Bombe alaska to myself.

Pavlova

This year for Australia Day we did something very traditional, we ate Pavlova and threw thongs. It was such a lovely day that we decided to have a few friends over for a bbq and of course, beers. The day was fantastic, the sun shone and the beers were cool, just the way I like them.

We feasted on our bbq and then held the first annual thong throwing competition. Now, my backyard is not massive by any stretch of the imagination, so the good old throng throwing competition where the furthest thong wins was probably not a good idea. Just for the shear fact that the neighbors probably would have gotten annoyed if we kept coming over to retrieve our wayward thongs. So instead I came up with a cleaver plan, it would involve concentration and accuracy. I set a bucket up a fair distance from the thrower, and whomever got the most amount of thongs into the bucket would win. You would think the person who invented the game would be fairly hard to beat.....sadly I was an easy walkover, and was only beaten to last place by Daz. But I suspect he threw the game because he knew last place was in for a cherry ripe!

The winner was announced, after a sudden death face off. Some how no one else had managed to get any thongs into the bucket, except for Miss Coco Chanel and Mad Scientist who both managed to get three in each. After a nail biting last round, Miss Coco Chanel came out the victor.

We then all went inside to the comfort that only air conditioning can give on a hot summers day and devoured an entire Pavlova. You can tell a pavlova is good when the only thing you can hear is the crunch of the crispy shell and muffled moans coming from the eaters. I was pretty pleased with myself, the actual Pavlova looked magazine worthy and the inside was just perfect, marshmellowy and heavenly. Daz thought that the crispy shell needed to be thicker, but I guess you cant pleased everyone. The only thing that would have made the Pavlova better was if it was covered in ice cream, I don't know if it would still be technically a Pavlova if it was covered in ice cream.

Pavlova (I used a Donna Hay recipe with a few very minor modifications)

Serves 8–10.

INGREDIENTS

150ml eggwhite (approximately 4 eggs)

Pinch of cream of tartar and

Pinch of Salt

1 cup (220g) caster (superfine) sugar

2 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch), sifted

2 teaspoons white vinegar

1 cup (250ml) single (pouring) cream

½ cup passionfruit pulp (approximately 4 passionfruit)

250g strawberries, hulled and halved

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).

METHOD

1. Place the eggwhite in the bowl of an electric mixer with cream of tartar and salt, whisk until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well, until the mixture is stiff and glossy. This may take a while, at least 5 minutes

2. Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk until just combined. Shape the mixture into an 18cm round on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Reduce oven to 120°C (250°F) and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes.

3. Turn the oven off, open the oven door and leave ajar and allow the pavlova to cool completely in the oven.

4. Whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Spread over the pavlova, top with passionfruit and strawberries and serve immediately.

* You’ll know when the meringue is stiff and glossy because the mixture will have tripled in volume and stands up when the beaters are lifted.

* The low heat puffs up the meringue while the long cooking time dries it out to give you a lovely crisp shell.

* Store your pavlova, undressed, in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Sung's Kitchen

Sung's Kitchen

118 Frankling Street, Melbourne

Recently, I had the pleasure of dining with a few special guests, it was my first food bloggers dinner. Conor from Hold the Beef had come over from Perth to watch some Australia Open action and decided to get together with some Melbourne bloggers for some action of the non-sporting kind.....eating. There was April from My food Trail, Michele from Iron Chef Shellie, Penny from Addictive and Consuming and Agnes from Off the Spork. Penny had suggested Sungs Kitchen and what a great recommendation it was.

It was so pleasant to be in the company of fellow food bloggers. I suspected I wasn't the only one who took photographs of menus and was extremely glad to see that I wasn't the only one who suffers from short term memory loss. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the menu at Sung's and have no idea what each dish is except for what I suspect it is made from. I'll try to do my best to include as much detail of the dish as possible, but it might be an idea to keep an eye on some of the other blogs for more precise information.

We started with the crab. Some big old mud crab with a nice eggy noodle below. Nothing better than meeting people for the first time and flicking them in the eye with some crab shell. Luckily, it managed to keep my crab shells to myself. The crab was good, a great sign is when there is very little talking going on, and once everyone dug into their dish there was silence.



We had all ordered a dish each. There was a tea smoked duck. The duck was nice and moist and the sauce was pretty delicious too.



I'm not exactly sure what type of prawn hot pot/clay pot this was, but there was a fair bit of chilli in it, just the way I like it. It packed a neat punch, just enough to get your saliva going and keep you appetite ticking over.



The description of the Hunan Pork spare ribs was pretty interesting, and Daz and I just had to order it. "if you like salt and spicy, than this dish is a must try". The pork was crispy and crunchy, the veggies were a nice accompaniment. There was massive piece of chilli flaked through the entire dish. Poor Daz must have grab the only extremely hot piece and attempt to eat it. That didn't stop him though, he was back for more straight away.



There were also some chicken wings, and a nice plate of veggies. I have no other explanation other than they were pretty good.





After the main course everyone was neither hungry nor full, so we tempted the true expansion of our stomachs and ordered dessert. The dessert menu was a bit of a mystery. There were desserts that had pumpkin, egg white, banana fritters that came complete with corn flakes - when a dessert becomes a breakfast item, and even Peking soffle balls. No, I didn't spell that incorrectly. We all assumed that the soffle balls were a nice play on the traditional souffle. So we had to try it. When they arrived at the table we were all a little surprised. April even said that they shouldn't be called soffle balls, but instead soft balls!! They were truly big enough!





They were filled with red bean paste and banana. The skins were nice and crispy with the insides fluffy. They tasted a little eggy and doughy to me, I probably wouldn't order them again, but it was a great novelty.



Here are a selection of other desserts that were tried.






Sung's kitchen was a great place to finally meet some of my fellow bloggers, and now I can finally say I know what a soffle ball is!!

Miso Soup with Pork Meat Balls

Its the middle of summer here in Australia right? So what was with that cold snap earlier this week. Any time the weather gets cool and wet I always crave soups, and I wasn't going to let the middle of January stop me!! I've had miso soup many times, but never have I attempted to make it myself. I thought I would give it a go. I had some pork mince so thought that I would make some nice ginger and garlic meat balls to put in the soup. After a little Googgling I discovered that pork in miso soup is called Tonjiru, usually made with thingly sliced pieces of pork. So I guess this soup is MY version of Tonjiru.

Working during the day is kinda a double edged sword. You get to make money to fuel your food loving habits, but it tires you out so that once you get home you can't be bothered cooking. This recipe is pretty easy and takes less than 10 minutes to prep and about 20 minutes to cook. So in less than half an hour you can be staring at the dishes you need to wash up....yay!

For this recipe I figured I would take the extremely easy road and use a pre-made miso paste, for the base of my soup. There are plenty of recipes out there to make your own base, but the white miso paste I tried was pretty darn good. I also had a few mushrooms in the fridge that were deprived of their water content. So I thought I would rehydrate them in the soup, after a little peeling and slicing.

Before

After, they look totally normal hey?

So here is the recipe.

Miso Soup with Pork meat balls (Maria's Tonjiru)

serves 4

400g Pork mince

2 cloves of garlic, minced

small piece of ginger, minced

4 cups water

3-4 table spoons of white miso paste

5-6 mushrooms, sliced

150 gram silken tofu, sliced into rectangular pieces

2 sheets of nori, cut into triangles

sesame oil

1. Combine pork mince, garlic ad ginger in a bowl. season with salt and pepper. Divide pork into eight individual portions and roll into balls.

2. Boil water and dissolve miso paste into it. Reduce heat to lowest possible. Drop meat balls into soup. Allow the soup to cook very slowly, making sure that the soup does not come to the boil. The meat balls will be slowly poached for 10-15 minutes.

3. Once meat balls are cooked, add mushrooms and tofu. Allow to simmer for 5 more minutes, until all ingredients are warmed up.

4. Serve in bowls with a few pieces of nori and a few drops of sesame oil.

I ate 3 bowls of this stuff to myself. I couldn't help myself, I just had to add a good helping of chilli oil, which is extremely addictive by the way! Is there anything that doesn't taste better with some good chilli oil??

Random Cupcakes

This is my first post for the new year, hosting visiting in-laws and the silly season has taken my precious time away from my blog, and I'm starting to suffer from withdrawal symptoms. I thought what better way to start the year than a post about random cupcakes I baked last year. I didn't get around to posting about them for various reasons, but I hope that you will all enjoy it. There are no recipes, but if anyone is really interested I'll do a proper post on any flavour.

For one of many morning teas I made some vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with Nutella Swiss meringue frosting. This is by far my favorite frosting flavour. I'm not a fan of overly sweet frosting and the Swiss meringue is a good frosting if you have a similar sugar intolerance as me. Eating this cupcake is exactly like licking a room temperature ice cream, that is if you like to lick some of your frosting off first.

Last year one of my work mates welcomed her first child, a little boy named Alexander. For her going away party I made a some lemon cupcakes with two toppings. A fondant frosting that Daz seemed to think look exactly like brains, and a vanilla butter cream frosting. A the time we didn't know she was having a boy, so I chose green and purple because the colours are pretty neutral.

Next we have another set of random cupcakes. These actually came about by accident. The are chocolate mud cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting, topped with some chocolate Persian fairy floss. I sometimes throw left over frosting into the freezer, I cant bring myself to throw it away, or even worse eat it! So on one occasion when I had made cupcakes, but then couldn't be bothered making some fresh frosting I mixed two left overs together. Surprisingly it tasted quite good, except they were really sweet! Everyone else seemed to enjoy them, so that's the most important thing.

Lastly we have possibly the worse photo of me in existence. My good friends are well aware of my cupcake addiction, so for my birthday they got me a cupcake cookie jar. I tried to take a bite to work out what flavour it was, but my teeth lost. I'm guessing its a vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting. My next task is to make a real replicate cupcake or my cookie jar.