Thursday 22nd October '09

Jocelyn and I went to Carousel today. While driving I realised that since waking up (in the early afternoon) I hadn't had anything to eat yet, so our first stop was the food court.

Alas! I forgot to bring my camera with me. And my wallet. I took a few photos on my mobile but unfortunately, I have no way of transferring the files across to either of my computers. Doh!

There are several new food stalls in the food court. The one that caught my eye in particular was the 'Ms Shanghai' - dim sum! We were going to try some dishes from there but we looked at the prices and shrank away. They were asking for $4.50 for three har gows (steamed prawn dumplings) that are about half the size of the ones we usually get from a restaurant in Northbridge. Understandably, they got alot of keen onlookers, but no takers.

Well, Jocelyn was keen to try to the potatoes from the Spud place. I forget the name but it was opposite 'Ms Shanghai'. I couldn't believe how much they were charging - $9 for a standard potato with a choice of up to 10 of their fillings. Jocelyn's cost $10.50! The portion was less than half of my lunch! I don't think this stall is going to survive for very long. I could make 2kg of baked potatoes with different fillings for $10.50!

I had a 1/4 chicken and chips from the Chicken Treat.


Spicy Vietnamese Beef Noodles

Ingredients:

Soup

2L water

2 x lemongrass stalks

1 small brown onion, halved

2 Tspn dried shrimp

2 x star anise

1 beef stock cube

1 Tspn soy sauce

1 Tspn fish sauce

1 Tspn sambal belachan

200g sirloin steak, thinly sliced

frozen beef balls

1 small brown onion, thinly sliced

1 cup cabbage, chopped

fresh Vietnamese mint

Vietnamese rice noodles, cooked

fresh cut chillies

Method:

1. Combine the ingredients for the soup in a pot and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down low and simmer while preparing the other ingredients.
   
2. Cook the Vietnamese rice noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain and set aside.
   
3. Add the frozen beef balls and cabbage to the soup to cook for a few minutes.
   
4. In a large soup bowl, add the noodles, slices of beef** and onion.
   
   
   
5. Ladle the soup (with beef balls and cabbage) over the noodles.
   
6. Garnish with the fresh mint and chillies.

**The beef will cook when the hot soup is added. This is how Vietnamese restaurants prepare it - they allow the raw beef to cook in the hot soup. However, I used a ladle with holes to partially cook the beef in the soup before adding it to my noodles.