Sagunja @ Chatswood

All of a sudden I had a crave for sushi.... and about a year ago, from reading other people's blog I found this sushi place at Mandarin Center in Chatswood called Sagunja. It's a restaurant in the sushi train format, and back then all dishes were $2.50! Bargain! And it didn't only have the simple cucumber rolls, and salmon and avocado rolls, which you would expect most dishes on the conveying belt to be when the price is only $2.50. No no no... 90% of the dishes were actually nigiri sushi and aburi sushi - my favourite! Back then the rice ball underneath the topping were small comparing to other sushi train restaurants, which means encouraging others to eat more plates ie. more profit! The small size of the sushi didn't really bother me, cos I do have a small stomach and I do want variety!

One year later, my crave for sushi led me back to this place. When we went there, we could no longer see the queue outside the shop waiting for the counter seats. Initially I thought maybe because the sushi train heat might have gone. We sat down at the counter after 10 minute of waiting and we saw the sushi on conveying belt.... ummmm.... the size has gone down from one year ago - 'small' to now 'very small - which probably contributed to the 'no queue' factor. And the price has gone up from $2.50 to $2.70! I do understand about inflation, but one thing I don't understand is, how come our salary doesn't go up like inflation?!?!?! Lucky for those who don't have a salary freeze!

I remember last time we came to this place, we sat right in front of the chef who made the aburi sushi, and we had the most joyous time ever!!! As soon as the chef put down an aburi sushi plate, we take it!!! hahaha... and while we were waiting for the seat, we were hoping that we can get a seat in front of the aburi sushi chef like last time... And hoorayyyy.... we did!!!! Regardless that the sushi have gone down in size, but the taste was still very good!!!!! The sashimi was fresh, and size of the topping on top of the rice was very reasonable. My favourite was still the aburi sushi - seared scallop, seared salmon, and seared eel!!!!! Yummmmmm..... The special sauce/mayonnaise they squeezed on top of the sushi before they flame grilled was just perfect, the sweet taste helped to enhance the flavour of the topping, not too powering, and when you bite into it, the lightly seared topping was soft and melted in the mouth!!! But one thing I wouldn't eat in Sagunia is their deep fried dishes - I think there is more room to improve definitely - they just don't have the crunch in them, and you can taste the oil in the deep frying process. But for the sushi I definitely do have a thumb up for them!!!

Although you don't get the value for money as you would last year, but I think I still want to go back for the price, taste and variety. I would rank Sagunia as my second favourite sushi train restaurant on my list. The first needs to be Makoto for sure!!!

Sushi Sagunja

Level 2, Shop 225 Mandarin Center

65 Albert Ave, Chatswood

Beetroot Risotto

How good is it to have friends who write food blogs as well??? hahaha... such a good place to get inspiration and learn from each other!!!

Alice, a friend who I've known for more than 10 years now, loves cooking ever since I know her. Her cooking doesn't only taste fantastic, but also look fabulous!!! I guess because she's a very artistic person - she draws, paints, plays the piano and the chinese harp!! Wow... I can't even manage to play a presentable song on the piano!

Anyway, the other day I saw on her blog that she made a beetroot risotto, and of course I went and ask her immediately for the recipe! And all she told me was... 'use the usual risotto recipe and add in beetroot'... OK... it sounds pretty easy, and I do like risotto, so I've decided that's gonna be my next project!!!

To be honest, I have never eaten or cooked fresh beetroot before! I've only used the canned beetroot in my salad or burger, and that's all the skills I have for beetroot! =P I was a bit shaky when I had the beetroot in my hand, not knowing whether I should do a quick boil in the water first or not.... but at the end I was lazy, and wanted to save time (cos it was a week night dinner!!! And risotto does take a while to cook!!) so I didn't go into the effort of part boiling the beetroot!

Anyway, if you want the recipe I used for the risotto, you can look back to one of the older posts Risotto with Lemon Thyme, Sliced Prosciutto, Pecorino and Crumbled Goat's Cheese, but omit the lemon thyme, prosciutto, pecorino and goat cheese. And when you add the first ladle of stock, add in the diced beetroots as well, and once the risotto is done, add the crumbed fetta cheese on top.

Beetroot risotto has an amazing vibrant red colour which I love, and have a slightly sweet taste to it. And the whiteness of the fetta cheese helps to break the intense red colour of the risotto, which makes it look more interesting. Of course you have to like beetroot to like this recipe, because besides the rice, the only solid ingredient is the beetroot!

Hubby took the left over back to work the next day, and everyone was surprised and questioned what he was eating, whether he was drinking blood to match the latest vampire movie Eclipse or what. Suddenly just became the center of attention of the whole team! haha...

Again... thank you to Alice to inspire me to make this beetroot risotto!!!!

Luxe Bakery

I've just realised having an extra half day tagging along the weekend makes such a difference!!! The weekend just felt much longer!!! Hubby had last Thursday and Friday off, and because I had meetings throughout Thursday and Friday morning, therefore I couldn't take any full day off, but I managed to escape from lunch time on Friday!

Due to day-light saving and the recent rainy weather, Mochi had been stuck at home for a couple of months now!! =P (Ashamed to say that!!!) So we've decided to take advantage of the sunshine on Friday and take Mochi out for the afternoon!

First stop: Lunch!

We had a walk along King St., and could only find a couple of cafe/restaurant that has outdoor seating. At the end we settled in a local Thai place - nothing fancy, but offered cheap food! $9 for a basil and chili fried noodle with duck! Don't think you can find something like that easily! I didn't take down the name, but I do remember it has an orange sign! It's only a small restaurant, when we walked in it was pretty empty. But once we sat down, we've found that alot of people actually come in for take-aways!

Basil & Chili Stir Fry Fat Rice Noodle with Duck

Satay Stir Fry Fat Rice Noodle with Chicken

For under $10 a dish, the taste was actually not bad!!!

Second stop: Buppa's Bakehouse

This is one of the places on my 'To Eat' list. Initially we wanted to go there for their Pear and Plum Cheesecake, but I don't know whether it was because they had a very good sales of the cakes or what, the counter fridge looked pretty empty, and there weren't anything I really wanted to try... so we didn't end up trying anything. Maybe next time.

Third stop: Luxe Bakery

Another cafe on the 'To Eat' list. I know that it's very famous for their sourdough bread, but since we already had lunch, so we went for their pastry! They have one single outdoor table for people with dogs, so Mochi and hubby quickly grabbed that, and I went inside to order something to share. The thing that really caught my eye was the meringue, it was big, tall and 'cloudy' and sprinkled with pistachio, and looked really good. I was very close to getting it, but I knew that I'm not a meringue person and neither do I like pistachio, so at the end I went for taste instead of look! =P Sourcherry rice tart and oat cookie with choc chip were my picks of the day!

I loved the filling of the rice tart, it's creamy with a little chewiness to it. Not too sweet!!! The choc chip oat cookie is the soft type, with a good balance of sweetness.... I just don't like desserts that are too sweet, which explained why I didn't pick the meringue! The coffee looked really good, but I didn't taste it though, didn't feel like coffee that afternoon! So I can't comment.

Luxe Bakery is a place I definitely would come back, aiming to try their sandwich and baguette and their famous sour dough bread! Love sour dough!

Luxe Bakery

194 Missenden Road,

Newtown

Cinnamon Jam Drop

After the recent high tea even at church, I had 4 jars of half full jam left and I really wanted to get rid of them, since they do take up quite a bit of space in the fridge and it will probably take Hubby and I a very long time to finish them off. And one day as I was reading through the few blogs that I usually follow, 'panda and cake' posted a recipe of jam drop, and I thought... 'perfect', so I went into the kitchen and start baking.

To be honest, very rarely that I have success with cookies!! They either spread too much, or turned out too soft. I could never get the consistency right! And this one is no exception... therefore.. failed! =( However the taste is quite cook, the cinnamon spice in the cookie just tasted fantastic!!! =)

I'm sure that there is no prob with this recipe, since other people's turned out well, so it must be my problem. My third batch actually turned out better, didn't spread as much! Don't know whether it's because for the third batch I switched the oven from conventional to fan-forced. It seems that it helped a bit...

What are the tips for baking some good quality cookies that have the right consistency?? Can someone help me?? =(

Raspberry Muffins + Orange Poppyseed Muffins

Yay.... the internet is finally back!!! Haven't posted for 2 weeks, not that I have given up blogging, but because my internet had been slow/down for the past 2 weeks, basically I could do nothing with the sssssllllloooowwwww internet speed! And now it's back to normal, so I can continue my life!

A book called 'Muffin Bible' is my favourite muffin cookbook, you can find basically any muffin recipes in there ranging from the ordinary - blueberry muffins, to the more advanced - self-saucing chocolate muffins, to the out of the ordinary - tapenade & olive muffins!!

I haven't tried all of the recipes, not even half, but one really simple recipe in there is my ABSOLUTE favourite... called 'Best Blueberry Muffins'. But this time I substitute it with raspberry!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp custard powder

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup raspberries

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup oil

1. Sift flour, baking powder and custard powder into a bowl. Add sugar and raspberries.

2. In a separate bowl mix together eggs, milk and oil.

3. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients and combine.

4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin an bake at 190C for 15-20 minutes

This is definitely a fool proof recipe!!! It has a fluffy texture, but a crunchy top which I like best! I usually bake extra and keep them in the freezer. However, you'll lose the crunchy top once frozen! I often mix all the dry ingredients the night before, and the next morning I only need to measure out and add in the wet ingredients then bake for 15-20 minutes, then I'll have these yummy and fresh muffins for breakfast the next morning in less than 30 minutes!

Besides the raspberry muffins, this time I also made orange muffins - but it's more involved/time consuming than the raspberry one because this recipe uses real orange!!! And my hubby loves these muffins! I also added some poppyseed in for extra texture. =)

Ingredients

Rind and flesh of 2 oranges (pith and seeds discarded) and this is the most time consuming bit!

75g butter, softened

1 egg

1.5 cups self raising flour

3/4 cup of sugar

1. Process orange rind and flesh with butter and egg

2. Mix in remaining ingredients until just combined.

3. Spoon into well-greased muffin pans and bake at 190C for 15-20 minutes

These muffins have real orange taste, unlike the recipes that only use orange essence and rind. Removing the pith and seeds do take a bit of time, but I think it's well worth it!

LOVE

"Love your neighbour as yourself" Mark 12:31

This is God's second greatest commandment to us. And this is a very hard commandment indeed!!! How can we be not selfish?? Not in our action, not in our words and not in our mind? Definitely something we need to learn throughout our whole lives!

Hubby and I was strolling through Mac Center last week, and we walked into Typo - a simple shop that sells funky stationery - something like Kikko, but cheaper! And towards the back of the store we saw the big white wooden lettering - $10 for 3!!! And I said, lets buy some to decorate our home! So we bought 'L', 'O', 'V', 'E'... I know I know, these 4 letters do sound a bit daggy. But it's a very good reminder to us about God's greatest commandment! And you must admit that it is a very sweet word!

As we were driving home, I thought... how cool would that be if we buy 'M', 'O', 'C', 'H', 'I' and stick them on the wall above Mochi's bed?!?!! hahaha....

Sara Lee Sticky Date Pudding Ice-cream

Ice-cream is something I always have at home, no matter it's winter or summer, there's always at least one tub of ice-cream there for me!!

The ice-cream aisle in the supermarket is my favourite!!! I always keep an eye out on new flavours and new brands. In terms of vanilla flavour, I like Movenpick the best!!! It just has a very rich vanilla taste.... yummmm... but when talk about the 'everyday brand', I like Peter's which is very smooth and creamy!! Blue Ribbon I found it's toooo creamy, as if I'm eating cream instead of ice-cream. Oh well... this is only my personal taste, I do believe that everyone has different likings!

As usual, my hubby pushing the trolley following behind me so I can throw things in it =P... walking down the freezer aisle, and something caught my eye! Sara Lee Sticky Date Pudding ice-cream!!! Sounds nice! Opened the freezer door, reached for a tub, then threw it behind me into the trolley!

I love the butterscotch sauce that goes with the sticky date pudding! The sweetened burnt butter taste is just awesome, and I was hoping that this Sara Lee ice-cream has the same flavour!

Ding ding ding... dessert time!!!! One scoop, two scoops into the glass... hahah... love my ice-cream as dessert! After the first spoonful.... a bit disappointed!! The ice-cream wasn't creamy at all!! Second spoonful... more diappointment!!! It didn't have the burnt butter taste that I was after, but instead all I could taste was toffee! =(

The flavour and texture weren't anything like what I had in mind.