Foodie Dreams Recipes

Google Recipe Search

2011-04-09T07:24:45Z

An interesting analysis of Google's approach to recipe search - visit here to read about it.

I can't say that this is a topic that I have been following lately, given my energies of late have been going towards organising a fundraiser for Japan, but once that all wraps up I will certainly be paying closer attention to this.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Tapas Extravaganza – Onion & Mushroom Salad

2011-03-17T05:34:12Z

Would it be rude of me to say that I loved tapas long before their onslaught increase in popularity on the Melbourne bar/ restaurant scene? I can’t even remember the first time I enjoyed this casual, relaxed way of dining, where you get to taste a bit of everything. I feel that it was before my trip to Spain though. What I do remember, however, was the first garlic prawns dish I had in Madrid.

My sister and I arrived sometime in the late afternoon, and, after getting settled, found a small restaurant close to where we were staying. The staff didn’t speak any English, and we certainly had no Spanish skills, but after much gesticulating and consulting of phrasebook, we ordered glasses of wine and some food. The smell (and taste) of that garlicky, seafood-y goodness made two travel-fatigued girls very happy.

So I’ve always wanted to make tapas at home, but never quite got around to it. Recently however, I bought The Book of Tapas by Simone & Inés Ortega, which eventually motivated me to give it a go.

Din Tai Fung

2011-02-26T06:33:05Z

So I was in Taiwan during my holidays... so you know we went to Din Tai Fung (DTF)! If it was up to Mr. Z, we'd eat there for all of our meals. But there are more things to eat in Taiwan than just delicious xiao long bao (XLB) from DTF, so we only went twice. Those of you who have been may notice that this is not the original - I just couldn't bring myself to wait more than an hour for lunch, so we went to their latest outpost in Taipei, in the TianMu Sogo Department store.

Needless to say everything was absolutely delicious!

[Caution: heavy photo content]

This should need no introduction!

Happy 2011!

2011-02-26T04:03:50Z

Yes, it's late, I know...

I do apologise for my absence, but you know, holidays, it really takes it out of you :P

Hehe, no no, I have no excuse, but I'm back now and will try and catch up on my backlog of posts!

Hope everyone's enjoying their 2011 so far :) You'll be hearing from me again soon! xo

Gills Diner

2010-12-30T03:32:36Z

Navigating down an alley way off Little Collins Street in Melbourne, Mr. Z and I came upon our destination for the evening. With tables and chairs reminiscent of a school assembly hall, the sounds of people chatting and the clanking of cutlery greeted us as we stepped into Gills Diner.

A group of us have congregated here for Miss A’s birthday celebrations, and I was extra excited because it’s the first time I’ve been to Gills Diner.

It was hard to decide what to order – everything looked good. Our lovely waitress made the decision even harder by telling us the day’s specials.

Gills Diner Menu 1Gills Diner Menu 2

When the food arrives we were all impressed with our dishes. I ordered the scallop & broccoli risotto, which was comforting but at the same time not heavy at all. I got Mr. Z one of the specials of the day – a pasta dish with crab ragu, which was scrumptious!

Naked for Satan

2010-12-06T06:04:05Z

I’ve been wanting to visit Naked for Satan since I first read about it in Three Thousand, but when I read that they are doing an opening special of $0.50 per pintxo* for lunch on weekdays… well naturally it became a matter of urgency to pop in!

Which is why, on a lovely Monday lunchtime, I corralled up R1 & R2 (this reminds me of Bananas in Pajamas… sorry boys!) and descended on Naked for Satan to sample their delights. And delights there were a-many – as you enter you will see the cold selections on the left hand side, and all through lunch the staff walk the floor to bring you the tempting hot selections. We grabbed our plates and made our (first-round) selections…

Christmas & General Shopping

2010-11-22T07:33:34Z

Have you started on your Christmas shopping yet? Planning on making use of the strong Aussie dollar? Want to get an Amazon Kindle for your friends and/or family? Take a look at the Foodie Dreams Amazon store! I've shared a selection of cookbooks, kitchen goodies and kindle related items that I love in the store, but you can buy anything that you were planning on getting from Amazon already, while supporting Foodie Dreams at the same time.

You can either click through to the above link, or find it via the top nav on the blog site. So check it out today! Thank you for reading & supporting Foodie Dreams :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake

2010-11-19T23:14:46Z

This wasn’t supposed to be a post. You see, I came across this recipe on the FriedChillies website, they looked so good, I couldn’t resist. But I was just going to make these bad boys for our Melbourne Cup Day BBQ (yes, my posts are slightly backlogged), and be done with it.

It wasn’t until I was ready to make these scrumptious delights, I realised, to my horror, that the recipe doesn’t tell you how long to bake them for.

Konjo Ethiopian Restaurant

2010-11-09T03:05:08Z

Not long ago Mr. Z and I venture out to Collingwood to try Konjo Ethiopian with a couple of friends. I will apologise now for the lack of photographic evidence, but I will explain why in a sec.

This small restaurant shares its space with the craft shop, and gives off the feeling that you're guests in someone's home, which was quite nice :) When we first took our seats we were served a small glass of Ethiopian spiced tea, it was cinnamon-y and slightly sweet – reminded me of chai, but without the milk. It was so lovely that our friend asked for a full sized glass. In case you are wondering, there are only non-alcoholic drinks available at Konjo, and no BYO allowed.

Blueberry Tart

2010-11-05T07:17:27Z

I LOVE blueberries. I may even go so far as to say they are my favourite fruit. This poses a slightly problem given that for half the year they are $12 - $14 a punnet. When you can eat a whole punnet in one sitting by yourself, well those just ain’t economical prices ;-)

Click to enlargeSo in those times of need, I turn to the frozen packs in my supermarket isle. However recently I have found an even better substitute – frozen blueberries at Costco. From memory it’s something like $7.50 a kilo, which means (in my house anyway), lots of blueberry muffins, and you can be greedy and make a whole tart FILLED with blueberries. Nom nom nom.