Seachange Cafe and Grill @ Dee Why

My husband and I headed up to the beach suburb of Dee Why on Saturday afternoon. We leisurely strolled around the beach and before we knew it, it was already 7pm. I wasn't really that hungry so I could settle for anything. My hubby, on the other hand, was getting hungry and was craving for good ole fish'n'chips. There are quite a number of restaurants and cafes facing the beach but none of them took our fancy except for one because, unlike the other restaurants on this strip, this one seemed alot more cosy and laid back than the rest.

This cafe is a small establishment, with tables set quite closely together. Good thing we didn't feel claustrophobic sitting so close to the other diners. The cafe is one that serves all-day-breakfast but we couldn't go past their wide selection of seafood main courses and salad variety. Although my hubby did want his fish'n'chips earlier on, his mind changed when he saw big pieces of succulent fish on the other diner's plates.

We ended up ordering an entree of Turkish Bread with lemon and herb to share. I ordered one of their warm salads which consisted of snow peas, roast capsicum and mixed leaves served with "BBQ'd blackened Salmon chunks with 4 thai king prawn cutlets, lemon myrtle 'n' chervil vinaigrette & pineapple salsa". Hubby ordered their "Chermoula rubbed Tuna Steak; buttermilk mash, honey & sesame wok fried baby greens, chilli plum saucee & BBQ'd lemon".

Lemon & Herb Turkish Bread

Not long after we ordered, our entree arrived. The turkish bread was delicious! It was warm and I loved the herb and butter taste. I couldn't taste any lemon though which was a shame. But I didn't care too much. The bread tasted so good! While we were eating our second slice of bread, the rest of the food arrived.

Snow peas, roast capsicum and mixed leaves served with BBQ'd blackened Salmon chunks with 4 thai king prawn cutlets, lemon myrtle 'n' chervil vinaigrette & pineapple salsa - $19.90

Oh my, take a look at the big pieces of marinated salmon on my salad leaves. On top of this laid 2 skewers of big prawns and on the side of the dish was a small spoonful of pineapple salsa. It didn't matter that the amount of salsa they give you is so little because the salmon and prawns were so well marinated, you didn't need any salsa to go with them. The pineapple salsa was just "there" and seemed a little out of place.

Chermoula rubbed Tuna Steak; buttermilk mash, honey & sesame wok fried baby greens, chilli plum saucee & BBQ'd lemon - $28.90

This was my hubby's dish. Our dishes both looked very similar. However his had a big tuna steak which was very meaty and cooked just right, with a tinge of rareness in the middle. Same as my dish, he also had 2 skewers of king prawns laid on top of his tuna. Beneath his tuna were the butternut pumpkin mash, a good number of asparagus and strings of beans.

Both dishes were quite similar in taste. The only major difference was the fish. Come to think of it, my hubby should've ordered the tuna & king prawn salad instead because the ingredients were the same as his main course. His main cost us $9 more and the only difference was that the main had the buttermilk mash, asparagus and beans instead of salad leaves. OH WELL! I feel jipped now but we'll learn next time. That said though, both dishes were very well made and enjoyable.

Seachange doesn't offer a wide selection of desserts. If I recall correctly, there were only 3 types of desserts on offer. I would've loved to finish off with something sweet but we were full to the brim after dinner and couldn't fit any more food in our stomaches.

Next time, I'll be back to try out their breakfast menu which I've read good reviews about.

Breakfast Menu

Seachange Cafe and Grill
The Strand, Dee Why NSW 2099
Phone (02) 9971 9692

Ryo's Noodles @ Crow's Nest

Ryo's Noodles has to be the best ramen place in Sydney. The restaurant is located on Falcon Street, Crow's Nest which is only a short drive from the city and across the Harbour Bridge. It's not situated in a prime location as there's not much around except for a Thai takeaway next door and a petrol station opposite the road. But people know where to find good food and even though the restaurant is not located on the busiest side of Falcon Street, people flock there and line up for their infamous ramen.

When my husband and I arrived, we were told that there will be a 20 minute wait. There were 2 groups waiting in front of us and after we got there, more people arrived. The waitress doesn't take down your name or give you a ticket number, you just need to wait outside until she comes out and tells the groups of people waiting outside that there's a table for 2 or table for 4 etc available. You basically need to remember who came before you and who came after you and judge when you're supposed to go inside without offending someone by accidentally pushing in.

The restaurant is quite small but cosy. I think there are only 6-7 tables. In some cases, you may need to share with other patrons. For us, we were lucky to get our own table at the back of the room. From where we were sitting, we saw autographs on A4 pieces of white paper stuck on the wall. We didn't know who they were but must've been from Japanese celebrities who visited the restaurant. We also saw quite a number of different Bruce Lee stickers on the fridge and big pieces of fatty pork in plastic rectangular baskets sitting on the fridge and on boxes stacked up behind where I was sitting. My husband pointed out that the guy cooking the ramen is kind of mean looking, with a look that says "I mean business" but I didn't think so :)

We sat down and ordered 2 bowls of Ramen Noodles in a Pork Soup and a serve of gyozas. With my ramen, I ordered corn kernals as an accompaniment whilst my hubby ordered pieces of seaweed. These accompaniments arrived with our ramen but in a separate bowl/plate and not in your ramen noodles. At Ryo's, water and pickled ginger are self served from the counter.


After waiting for around 10 mins or less, our noodles arrived. I wanted to dig in right away but had to take photos of it to show you all how yummy it looked. The bowl of noodles were pipping hot, topped with strips of pork which were of decent thickness, served with half an egg with the yolk still slightly gooey, and topped with a big handful of finely chopped spring onions and a decent amount of sesame seeds. The soup base is the best - it wasn't watery but was almost thick and had the most intense pork flavour. I think this was what made the ramen tasted sooo good. Ohhh, the thought of it makes me want to devour another bowl.




The gyozas came a few minutes behind our ramen and they were cooked to perfection. Although a little oily but the ingredients inside (I believe they were made out of pork and cabbage) were very fresh and the dough was slightly crunchy at the bottom where it was pan fried but the rest of the dough was chewy and soft. They were good. Very tasty.


I took my time eating every strand of ramen, loving the chewiness of the noodles and the intense flavour of the soup. I shouldn't forget to mention the strips of pork in the ramen as they were of decent size and the meat seemed like it was going to melt in my mouth. I don't remember chewing the meat at all to be honest.

One thing worth mentioning though. That night, my hubby managed to ram his car into someone else's bumper while he was trying to find a park on the side street. His car wasn't damaged at all which was a miracle but the other car's bumper was quite badly scratched and stripped off its own paint. Needless to say, I wasn't happy with him for being so careless but all was almost forgotten when our food arrived. The owner of the other car was actually a patron at the restaurant too and when she gave us a call about her car, we were just about to leave the restaurant expecting an angry person waiting for us in front of their car. Luckily she was nice about it. Tonight ended up being an expensive night for my hubby. An excess of $500 would probably need to be paid for to fix up that poor girl's car. **me shaking my head** So much for him making sly comments about women drivers on the way to dinner!


Ryo’s Noodles
125 Falcon St
Crows Nest 2065 NSW
Phone: +61 (02) 9955 0225
Thu-Tue noon-2.30pm, 5pm-9.30pm
Cash only; no bookings available

Pasta Boscaiola

I had to whip this up pretty quickly the other night. You see, I got home early but because I've been having stomach cramps in the last few days, I couldn't be bothered doing much when I got home. My husband was at the gym after work and he likes to 'dilly-dally' (e.g. taking his time changing, walking back to the office, packing up his things etc). You may ask why he doesn't just take all his stuff down to the gym with him so he could come home straight after the gym, right? Yes, I've been on his case about this but he says he doesn't want to leave his stuff at the gym so he feels compelled to leave them all in his office. After a long wait, my husband finally gets home at 7:30pm and he wanted dinner. I didn't mind cooking coz I didn't want him to mess up my kitchen and tonight, after feeling crook the entire day, I needed to conjure up a quick meal. With leftover bacon and mushrooms in the fridge, I decided to make him my Pasta Boscaiola.

This pasta is great. It's very tasty and although it's a creamy sauce, the ingredients making up the sauce are not fattening at all. If you want to make a creamy pasta sauce but don't want to pack on the calories, I would encourage you to try using evaporated milk.


Pasta Boscaiola
(serves 2)

200g fettuccine pasta
4 pieces of fat-free bacon, chopped
6 swiss mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 can Carnation Light & Creamy Evaporated Milk
250ml vegetable stock
3 teaspoons cornflour
handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Parmesan cheese

- Cook pasta until al dente
- While the pasta is cooking, start making the sauce
- Mix cornflour with water, set aside
- Heat up a saucepan and cook garlic with bacon until ready; add mushrooms until they are tender
- Pour in vegetable stock and when this is heated up, add in the evaporated milk & bring it to the boil
- Turn the heat down and let it simmer; then pour in the cornflour mixture. Stirring until the mixture becomes a creamy texture
- Toss the pasta in the creamy sauce until the pasta is well covered
- Serve immediately with parsley, pepper and a handful of parmesan cheese (if desired)

HAPPY CNY!!

Happy CNY and the year of the Rat to everyone! May this new year be full of joy and prosperity, love, laughter and good health!

I'll be going to dinner with my friends tonight to celebrate CNY. Hopefully I'll remember to take photos of the food tonight and share with you all in my next post.

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

I bought a Bundt cake mould a few weeks ago at the sales - the purpose of which was to make a chiffon cake - but I never got around to it!! My poor cake mould was just sitting in its cardboard box wrapper next to my fridge collecting dust.

This coming Thursday is Chinese New Year and to follow Chinese tradition, we are meant to clean up the house before the New Year. My duties tonight were to tidy up my clothes and to throw out the magazines that are scattered next to my bed. But I'm lazy :P I should've cleaned and tidied up a little tonight but as I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, I had the sudden urge to make something sweet...I wanted something sweet and syrup-y!

I opened my little pantry cupboard...thinking...looking around...what can I make...what ingredients do I have? Then my eyes rested on a small tin of pineapple. Oh, pineapple. I remember there's an upside down pineapple cake recipe somewhere I had always wanted to make and all the ingredients are sitting in my pantry. Perfect! Oh, and I thought to myself, what tin should I use to make this delightful cake? I looked at my sad Bundt mould next to my pantry cupboard...ah, Bundt mould...tonight is your night!

This Upside Down Pineapple Cake is a delight. When I was baking it, I was worried because the cake wasn't distributing evenly so I had to move it a little so one side wouldn't brown and rise more than the other side. I didn't worry about it too much - as long as the base is not burnt and the cake is cooked then I'm okie.

My hubby loved the cake. I cut him a piece 10 mins after it was baked and he finished that piece up pretty quickly telling me how nice it was. He loves his pineapple so that was probably one of the reasons why he liked the cake so much. He also mentioned how nice it was to have a slightly crunchy bottom. He liked it alot and asked for another piece telling me the piece I cut him earlier was "too small". Too small?? This is coming from someone who's complaining about getting fat but now he wanted another piece of cake! Haha..Men!!


Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Preheat oven to 180C

Topping:
80g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
small can of pineapple slices

Cake:
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup pineapple juice from the can + leftover pineapple slices (squashed up)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt

For the topping:
- Melt butter in the microwave for 25 sec; pour into Bundt mould
- Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter
- Arrange pineapple slices on the butter/sugar mixture

For the cake:
- Beat eggs for a few minutes
- Add in sugar 1/3 cup at a time, beat into the eggs
- Add in pineapple juice & remaining pineapple pieces
- Add in vanilla essence
- Beat until well combined
- Add into the mixture sifted flour and salt
- Pour the cake mixture over the topping in the Bundt mould
- Bake in over for 30mins @ 180C; the cake should be springy to touch
- Turn pan upside down on a plate and cool for 10-15 mins before serving

Sugared Hazelnut Biscuits

These biscuits are so fragrant! They are fantastic. Once you have combined all of the ingredients together, you'll love the smell of the hazelnut, mixed spice and vanilla essence of your biscuit mixture. Now, just because this biscuit doesn't require the use of butter or olive oil, it doesn't mean the mixture won't stick together. The mixture may look a little crumbly at first but once you start combining all of the ingredients together with your hands, it will come together. So don't worry. Nuts have oil in them so the mixture will come together and will take shape as you roll it into a ball.

I adapted this recipe from Donna Hay's sugared macadamia biscuits. I was lazy and I didn't want to finely chop any macadamias so I used ground hazelnut instead. I also didn't have any ground star anise in my cupboard so I increased the amount of mixed spice by 1/4 tsp.


Sugared Hazelnut Biscuits
(makes 25)

220g ground hazelnut
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup plain flour
2 egg whites
raw sugar, for sprinkling

- Preheat the oven to 180C & line your baking tray
- Place the ground hazelnut, caster sugar, flour, mixed spice, vanilla essence and egg whites in a big bowl. Mix the ingredients together using your hands
- Roll the mixture into small balls, place on the baking tray and press the mixture down with your fingers
- Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 10-12 mins or until light golden
- Cool on tray

Salmon Fettucine in a Light Lemon Sauce

*Sigh* The weather...Sydney has been raining since Thursday night! From the looks of things, it will continue to rain this whole week. Rain periods, showers, thunderstorms. What has happened to our summer? Where is the sunshine? Rain periods during summer reminds me of what the weather is like in HK during their summer time but luckily not as humid.

Today was certainly one of those days you'll want to stay indoors and veg. What goes well when you're vegging around at home is to indulge in a big bowl of hot pasta. I didn't want anything too heavy since I'm already not moving much except for picking up the remote control and moving my fingers every so often, so I didn't want my pasta to be drowned in any creamy sauces. For a refreshing summer taste, I used lemon juice in my pasta instead. Half cooked salmon adds creaminess to the dish. I also added a roma tomato, some fresh organic asparagus, swiss mushrooms and a small handful of dill in this pasta.

It's delicious and easy to prepare. It satisfied my pasta craving and was so comforting eating this whilst sitting on the couch. As I was sitting there with my bowl of pasta, I looked out the window and didn't care what the weather outside was like anymore. If only my apartment had a balcony, I would happily sit outside watching the rain whilst slowly enjoying this comforting pasta dish.



Salmon Fettuccine in a Light Lemon Sauce
(serves 1) - hubby is still away

150g salmon fillet, no skin
2 stalks of asparagus
3 Swiss mushrooms
1 roma tomato
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1 small handful of chopped dill
juice of 1/2 lemon
fettuccine for 1 person
salt and pepper to taste
grated Parmesan

- Cook the fettuccine in a pot of boiling water until al dente
- Cut the salmon into 2cm cubes
- Cut the asparagus to 1 inch long; de-seed the tomato, cut into bit sizes; slice the mushroom
- In a pan, heat the olive oil then combine together the salmon, lemon, salt and pepper. Cook salmon until it turns pink. Remove from pan. Don't overcook it and even if it's still a little rare inside, remove the salmon from the pan. Don't worry if you think the salmon is not cooked properly because the heat will slowly infiltrate and cook the inside of the salmon. This way, the fish will remain buttery and not dry
- Use the pan again and cook the asparagus. When it's almost done, add in the tomatoes and mushrooms
- Add the salmon, asparagus, mushrooms and tomatoes into the pasta
- Add in dill and lemon juice. Toss well
- Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese