My Thai Beef Salad – For B3rn

I have been naughty and eating too much chocolatey-yummy goodness. So to compensate, I was looking for a salady type healthy dinner. Lot’s of veggies, no/low fat easy and tasty. Thai Beef salad!
I did my research and found a commonality of ingredients. It’s all in the dressing you see, so if that’s not right, it doesn’t work. So after popping up to my local butcher, who had some superb sirloin, I set to work.

Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers and Fine Food Market

Ah! what a glorious day, and the most perfect day for market going. After three weeks of trying to head over to these new markets I finally made it. Located in front of St Mary’s Cathedral, at Cook and Phillip Square these markets are much larger than I expected.

The Shop and Wine Bar

It’s been so long since I actually had a conversation with my best girlfriend. We normally see each other a couple of times a week but this is at 6am when we’re in the park running around, so there’s no real opportunity to catch up. So last week she suggested a catch up with another friend of ours in Bondi.

I never go to Bondi, and there’s a reason why. Public transport to the Eastern beaches sucks. We caught a train from Martin Place to Bondi Junction then waited in a very long queue for a bus…this is why I live in the inner city.

Anyways, after a short bus trip we were in Bondi. After a quick stop to pick up our friend we headed to The Shop and Wine Bar on Curlweis Street. This unassuming little box is a delight. The wild pink wallpaper feature is a standout.

Yay! It’s Good Food Month!

We’re heading into my favourite time of year: Daylight savings is close, my birthday is coming up, and throughout the month of October, Sydney turns it’s collective spirit to enjoying food! Good Food Month is the highlight of my year. Not only do I get to enjoy the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park for two weeks, Let’s do Lunch allows me the luxury of dining at places such as Aria and Otto.

This year,  I have booked into Quay for lunch (2009 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant of the Year, and Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year), and also still trying to figure out where else to go.

I’ll inevitably be hitting the Night Noodle Markets at least three times but I’m also looking forward to the Danks Street Festival, and the Sydney Food and Wine Fair.

Apart from that I’m also hoping to make the Growers Market after last month’s wash out…and who could forget Sugar Hit!

What are you looking forward to during  Good Food Month?

No eggs….take two

So having made muffins with an entirely inappropriate recipe I thought I’d better try again. I checked out my copy of Mix and Bake, but nothing really caught my attention. So I headed over to Taste and looked up “banana, chocolate” and this is what I found:

The Book Kitchen

I have been dying to go to this restaurant/cafe for ages, but it’s always been too busy, or closed whenever I’ve come past. So taking advantage of my day off work, and checking the website to make sure they’re open, I head off. Lucky for me The Book Kitchen is Just up the road!

No Eggs…

My boyfriend has difficulty with food. What do I mean by this? He doesn’t eat meat, except for beef. He eats store bought cakes, pastries etc but doesn’t eat eggs. Consequently he never eats anything I bake. As most people know, eggs are an essential part of baking. They bind and they create air bubbles which in turn leads to fluffiness…

So my ongoing dilemma has been, how do I bake goodies without eggs?

First thing I did was google “no egg muffins” as I wanted to make blueberry muffins with all the lovely “cheap” blueberries around, and didn’t find much. But then I remembered a fantastic website a vegetarian friend put me on to a few years ago: The Post Punk Kitchen, a TV\ show in the U.S.. I headed over and found exactly what I was looking for, easy, straightforward advice on no egg baking.The crew at the Post Punk Kitchen give advice on all the no egg options including tofu and flax seeds. I decide that if I can’t find a boxed egg substitute at my local health food shop and/or Woolies, I’d try the banana and/or the tofu option. Lucky for me the health food shop had it.