Charmy Food Icey Ice Snow Ice

by TP Little bro

On the prowl for dessert one night, I catch wind of an interesting and unique creation. It's sold at Ajisen Ramen, a national japanese franchise better known for it's ramen, I arrive late but just in time for last orders.

They sell "Charmy Food Icey Ice Snow Ice" touted as "the world best Snow Ice dessert never seen before in Sydney". I think they meant ever seen before in Sydney.

The basic concept is simple. Creating a mixture, freezing it, then putting it through a cute blue penguin machine (pictured below). The penguin shaves the ice in a particular way which works, resulting in light texture and a very creamy taste.

Among the handful of flavours on offer, we choose a large green tea with additional topping of aloe vera pieces. It tastes much better than it looks and sounds. Trust me.

They claim, an average scoop of ice cream has 22.9g of fat and 418.5 kJ compared to an average scoop of snow ice which has 2.8g of fat and 128.5 kJ. A much healthy alternative by the sounds of it.

Gotta love their marketing and cross selling skills on the menu....

"Snow Ice can be enjoyed at any time but the pleasure of tasting Snow Ice is most enhanced after enjoying your favourite Ajisen Ramen meal or other dishes"

Thumbs up for this dessert. Worthwhile to try just for the novelty.

Ajisen Ramen, 85 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000. Ph (02) 9267 8816 (among other locations)

Food pic from NZ

Today I was introduced to my very first Kiwiberry! As you can see, my friend looks exactly like a kiwi, and in fact tastes exactly like one too, with a slight floral taste, all in the size slightly bigger than an Aussie $2 coin. Now if I can just get my hands on a grape the size of a kiwi.....

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Edit: Also on my berry wishlist is the South American pineberry, recently stocked by the UK supermarket chain Waitrose. It is said to "combine the shape and texture of a strawberry with a flavour and smell closer to that of a pineapple". The berries were almost extinct at one stage, and now retail for £3.99 for a 125g punnet, thanks to the Dutch. Anyone keen to import to NZ?

Big Bite for Lunch

By TP Little bro

A new entry to the Twin Palates world is the highly competitive lunchtime menu.

Jumping on board the sandwich/burger trend, I decided to try a sandwich bar called “Big Bite on Pitt” which has received some serious street cred in the lunchtime yuppie crowd. Hearing of it's popularity, we pre empt the lunch time rush and head over early. We arrive around 12.15pm to a line at least 20 people deep.

Fifteen minutes later, we make it to the inner sanctum, a tiny hole in the wall venue which strangely felt reminiscent of the soup kitchen from Seinfield (not sure why given the staff here are warm and friendly).

I heard from fellow connoisseurs that the Chicken Schnitzel and the Grilled Chicken varieties are popular choices but because I love lamb and because it was a ‘special of the day’, I chose to go with the Grilled Lamb Sandwich.

By simply looking around, I knew I was in for something BIG. People were walking out with giant packages of foil and when my order came out, it was so big I felt like cradling it in my arms back to the office (due to limited seating, the small tables out front are pretty much it).

Staff working hard in a sea of giant bread slices and countless kilometres of aluminium foil.


In an attempt to portray just how big it was, I took off my size 40 Oxford shoes (roughly 31cms long) to use as a benchmark.


Grilled chicken sandwich depicted below. I was just too excited and devoured the lamb before remembering to take a picture.

At $9 a pop, Big Bite definitely delivers on both quantity and quality. The sheer size of the bread slices made me a little worried that would be all I would taste. But I was very wrong. It was the exact opposite of a stereotypical bad lunchtime sandwich. It wasn’t too salty, it wasn’t overcooked and the salads didn’t look or taste like anything that would make Gordon Ramsay start cursing profusely. The lamb was delicious – seasoned well, cut into small and manageable bite size pieces with just the right amount of chilli to give it a kick. And the bread added a nice texture, especially when you got to the crunchy crusts. My lunch buddies agreed and judging from the silence when eating followed by a wave of mmmm's and ahhh’s, it was definitely a winner.

Portion wise, half a sandwich should be enough to fill the average Joe. And if you want to line up a quick dinner or afternoon snack, save the other half for later.

Will definitely be returning for more soon.

Big Bite on Pitt
Shop 3, 250 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW
Ph: 02 9283 4700

Good to be home

Highlight of the 2010 MFWS - Massimo Bottura & Matt Preston

Hello friends,

Spent the past couple of weeks back home in Melbourne. As soon as the wheels landed on the Melbourne tarmac, I had a great sense of feeling it is great to be home.

Food wise, it was fantastic to be home. To provide a summary of my last 2 weeks in Melbourne, I will recollect my trip by order of my top 10 food experiences:

1. Melbourne Food and Wine show masterclass weekend
2. Private room at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in Melbourne
3. Red Spice Road experience with fantastic curry, good entrees and the lamb shoulder!
4. Banquet at Gingerboy
5. Memorable breakfast at Birdie Num Nums
6. Tjanabi - Indigenous cuisine
7. Kim Chi Lunchbox - surprisingly good and cheap
8. Han Guuk Guan Korean and Chinese restauarant (also happened to be half price BBQ Monday)
9. Los Amates Mexican Kitchen
10. Tied with revamped Oriental Spoon and tapas at One Fitzroy St

I would probably squeeze the dinner party night (Chilli con carne with mango bacon salad, Mary Berry's Chocolate traybake with ganache) and homemade sausage roll night in between #5 and #6

My Melbourne trip was finished off by a lovely young thing with an amazing nose. I arrived in New Zealand, collecting my bags at the airport, when a beagle decided to endlessly jump on me. I began to panic when after a firm and repetitive "put your bag on the ground, put your bag on the ground", the harmless looking mutt decided to sit. Having watched Channel 7's border security, I knew I was likely to be in trouble when an airport hound sat down, as it is a subtle way of the dog indicating he has detected the scent of the substance he is sniffing for. After sniffing around every single inch of my bag, multiple times, I found out it was a meat sniffing dog, and he had detected the chicken curry puffs that were packed for consumption at the Melbourne airport. Good for me my stomach beat the dog to it. When I got the all clear, I packed up my innocent bag, and I discovered the food products I brought back to NZ (like dark brown sugar I can't seem to find anywhere, and various spices and food products - which were all declared thank you) had now picked up a scent which smelt awfully similiar to my late dog's rarely-ever-washed dog bowl in summer. I was strangely angry at the dog, but have now come to the more calm realisation that this beagle was a talented customs official that would have to exercise huge self control in having to do all the ground work of sniffing out meat and not eating it. Well done dog!

More detail to come in upcoming posts, so stay tuned!

Changes to TP

Hello TP readers,

Sorry for the lack of posting - the year has started very busy, and maintaining a blog means time commitment! As a result, to save both you and I time, I will be presenting a new template for my restaurant reviews, called "Restaurant on a page".

Basically it is inspired by the corporate world - a "one pager" which is given to high level management who don't have the time to get into the details, but allowing them to read a quick summary so they are aware of the scenario.

I've noticed that with the less time I have, when I read other food blogs, I am starting to skim read. To address that, "Restaurant on a page" will be a simple review that shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to read.

It is broken up into 4 headings

1 - BEFORE THE MEAL

2- THE MEAL

3 - THE RATING

4 - THE VERDICT

I hope this will make it a lighter read, and will bring a consistent way of reviewing restaurants. Every now and then, a feature restaurant will be reviewed, which will be a more in depth review. Also, I keep forgetting to bring my camera to take pictures of the food, which makes me not write up a review, so for now, I will just be using my phone camera, which means the photos won't be as good, but the review will be written and posted. Hope you find the changes overall to be an improvement. If not, your feedback is welcomed.

The other change is that TP Big Brother has moved from Melbourne to Auckland. My plan is to discover this new city through its restaurants/food/wine, and to conquer the city by doing the Auckland marathon.

It's good to be back on Twin Palates. Enjoy

- TP Big Bro

Restaurant on a Page - Mai Thai, Auckland

Mai Thai

Cnr Victoria & Albert Street

Auckland Central

Ph: 09 366 6258

.

=====BEFORE THE MEAL

I see a place on the corner. Painted outside are words saying the restaurant has won a good food award in 2007. I see the words "famous thai cuisine", so I give it a shot. Once I am seated, I am immediately hit with the reknown good service this place gloats about. I feel comfortable within the authentic Thai setting, with the traditional looking table ware, and thai decor. I want this food to be exceptional so I can write a really good review. I order from the separate "signature dish" menu

=====THE MEAL

Appetiser - Tod man pla - light curry flavoured fish cake - $9.50

The good
- Authentic thai flavour
- Not too oily

The bad
- nothing that special

Main - Gaeng ped yang + rice - roast duck with red curry and thai lychee - $23.50

The good
- Authentic thai flavour
- range of flavour - hot, spicy, salty, sweet (lychee), sour (pineapple)

The bad
- way too salty
- duck quiet chewy (overcooked)


=====THE RATING

5 - Exceptional
4 - Great
3 - Average
2 - Mediocre
1 - Never again

=====THE VERDICT
Worth it / Come again?
A bit pricey for what it was, but food was pretty authentic and the service was excellent. The lady saw that I was reacting to the heat of the curry, and asked if it was too spicy. I said "a little but it's not bad". She then proceed to fill up my glass whenever it was empty (probably had 3 or 4 glasses when eating the curry), and she told me at the end that next time I can ask to make the curry less spicy. I'll be coming back to try other items on the menu

El Bulli closing for 2 years

No news is good news

I have breaking news. Its bad. The best restaurant in the world is closing for 2 years

My El Bulli post
http://twinpalates.blogspot.com/2009/09/chasing-el-bulli-part-i.html

Read it for yourself
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1956713,00.html?xid=rss-topstories