When I received an invitation to an event titled “120 Yum Cha Dishes in 120 Minutes” it took me all of 3 seconds to RSVP. I adore Yum Cha. Always have. I love the fact that in one meal you get to sample such a variety of flavours. I love the sharing nature of it. And I just generally think Chinese food is delicious. So there!
The Eight, Sydney’s largest Chinese restaurant, specialises in modern fusion and traditional Chinese cuisine with a focus on live fresh seafood. And last week they hosted an event, as mentioned above, titled “120 Yum Cha dishes in 120 Minutes.” It was a knockout! As per the name of the function, there were more Yum Cha dishes to sample than you could poke a chopstick at AND we were also lucky enough to have super fun dumpling lessons from one of the highly trained chefs from The Eight. The menu at the restaurant is a superb combination of both innovative and traditional Eastern styles of cooking. The perfect balance of ‘East meets West!’
The food on offer included steamed & fried dim sims, dumplings, seafood rolls, prawn balls, fried avocado & prawn rolls, congees, sticky rice, deep fried salt & pepper spanner crab, and loads more! It’s also super affordable as Yum Cha dishes start from $2.90.
The Eight also offers AMAZING speciality dishes such as Stir Fried Lobster with Egg White and Crab Rob (market price), Wok-Seared Wagyu served with Foie Gras Paste ($32.80), or Roast Suckling Pig ($36.80). An a la carte dinner service is available seven nights a week, for this there is over 80 menu options to select from and bookings are also available for private functions, weddings, corporate events and conferences.
I’m wary of anyone who doesn’t like a cinnamon doughnut. Very wary.
Kidding!
Sort of…
I mean seriously though, they are SO damn delicious on 50 million levels. There’s the fluffy pillowy dough factor, then there’s the crispy edge factor, then there’s the sugar factor. And of course the cinnamon hit! YUM.
I’d been looking for the perfect recipe for AGES and had made enough doughnuts in the last 6 months to feed a small nation when FINALLY I found it. But I got a shock. The shock came because the recipe that I loved the most out of about the 15 or so that I’d tried was for BAKED doughnuts. Yup. Baked. It comes from taste.com.au and can be found by clicking HERE. The fact that they are baked doesn’t exactly make them as good for you as broccoli, but it definitely makes them healthier than the dunked into a billion litres of oil variety!
Below are some tips / changes that I would make to the above recipe:
You may need more butter, sugar and cinnamon at the final stage but that’s fine, just have some extra handy.
When cutting the doughnuts, I found it easier to roll “one doughnut at a time’s worth” of dough flat and then cut, then roll some more flat then cut, as the dough didn’t roll out in one large rectangle very easily! (This could be because I didn’t knead it for long enough!)
ENJOY!
When working with Yeast remember to be accurate with the amount required!
Mix well before adding any liquid!
Butter makes the world go around!
Use a wooden spoon to mix.
Kneading is SO important.
I rolled and cut one doughnut at a time. It’s up to you how you want to do it!
It’s important to let them rest AGAIN. Be patient! Also, be generous with the butter and Cinnamon sugar at this stage!
Yum! SO much better served fresh and hot from the oven!
Last weekend I attended the TEDxSydney conference. It was held at the breathtakingly beautiful Sydney Opera House. If you’ve never heard of TED you can read lots more about it HERE. As PHENOMENAL as the conference was, I’m actually not writing about the speakers and performers today, I’m writing about what we ate.
Under normal circumstances I, personally, would be interested to know what was served for lunch at a well-known conference, but I understand that the majority of people probably wouldn’t. So of course there is something more exciting to discuss with you than just the contents of the day’s menus.
As TED is all about ideas worth spreading and new and exciting ways of doing things, it was the perfect opportunity for food curator Jill Dupleix and her team to feed the people using ‘crowd farming.’ “What the hell is that!?” I hear your ask. Well I don’t hear you but I imagine that’s what you’re thinking! ‘Crowd farming’ is basically where all of the attendees, as well as other locals who were interested in participating, were asked to grow and bring the food that would be eaten on the day.
The real challenge was not actually sourcing enough produce, every man and his dog got behind this awesome concept, rather, the poor chefs from Matt Moran’s ARIA catering were only made completely aware of what they would be getting a couple of days before! They basically had no idea what or how much of any one thing would be available, yet the expectation that the 2000 plus attendees would be eating delicious tucker was absolutely there!
I think this video that was shown to us on the day explains everything really well. I have watched it a billion times and get chills every time I do. The sense of community and togetherness makes me all warm and fuzzy!
Have you heard of Crowd farming? What do you think about it?
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This here, is an EXCELLENT example of a dish that tastes as bloody well good as it looks! It’s not for every day as it is quite rich in flavour and on the more expensive side, but that makes it even more special
INGREDIENTS
250g Squid Ink Pasta – I used bows but you can use any kind
200g Artichokes (in olive oil)
1/2 bunch Dill
Juice of 2 Lemons
4 tablespoons Olive oil
3 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper
3/4 cup shaved Parmesan
METHOD
1) Cook your pasta as per instructions on the packet.
2) While this is cooking, finely chop the dill, chop the (drained) artichokes into large pieces and add both of these ingredients to a bowl with the lemon juice.
3) Add olive oil (you can use your own on the olive oil from the artichokes) to bowl with artichokes, drain pasta and combine everything together.
