Jas My Waffles - Rooty Hill

I first heard about Jas My Waffles from my mum. She hired them for my nephews 1st birthday. I remember how everyone was impressed with their delicious creations. They had savoury and sweet waffles on sticks for everyone to enjoy.

I was pleased to hear that they opened up a cafe near Rooty Hill station in the west. I bumped into my friend Miriam and we decided to go and check it out.

Jas My Waffles has a young and hip feel. There is a big plasma TV for you to watch while you are waiting for your order to arrive. Their menu has breakfast options, hot beverages, churros, pancakes, and sweet/savoury waffles. Oh and did I mention that they also have New Zealand Natural ice cream.





I was tossing up between a traditonal Halo Halo which is a Filipino favourite and the Jas My Favourite Platter which Miriam and I could share. After looking at the menu for the longest time we chose to go with the Jas My Favourites Platter which had 5 waffles, 4 churros and 1 dipping sauce. All that for $18.00 which was quite a good deal.

Strawberry waffle $2.50 each. Their waffles are served warm and the strawberry sauce on this was nice and tart with the sweetness of the icing sugar cutting through the tartness. The maple syrup waffle was light and served with real maple syrup. You cant go wrong with real maple syrup $2.50 each.



The pistachio and macadamia waffles $2.50 each, were my favourite. It was covered in melted chocolate with big chunks of pistachios and macadamias.

The flake waffle was the last one that we had. This was a chocolate lovers dream. It was drenched in melted chocolate with chunky bits of flake on top $2.50 each.




The churros were very big. They serve you 4 of these in the Jas My Favourite Platter. I was impressed. They were cooked perfectly. I would have loved more dipping sauce though. Cinnamon Churros are $2.00, Chocolate and Caramel Churros are $2.50.

If you are ever in the west and want to try Waffles of a different kind I suggest going to Jas My Waffles. The staff are extremely friendly, the desserts are delicious and great value for money.

Jas My Waffles
Shop 6, Rooty Hill Road North
Rooty Hill NSW 2766

Phone: 02 9575 4814
Email: info@jasmywaffles.com.au
Website: http://www.jasmywaffles.com.au/

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Kulinarya - Adobo

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colourful cuisine. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.


This months Kulinarya dish was chosen by Trisha. Since the holidays were so busy she decided on making something simple but well known in the Philippines which is Adobo.



Every Filipino family has their own way of making Adobo. Some people use coconut milk or coconut juice. Some people even add lemongrass. Even thought people tend to add their own twist, the one rule about making this dish is to make sure you have the basic ingredients added. These ingredients are garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and bay leaves.



I rang my Aunt to ask her if we had a family recipe for Adobo. She said that everyone uses my grandma’s recipe. So here is my Lola’s (Grandma) version of Adobo.

Chicken Adobo

Ingredients

1.5kg chicken thighs with skin on
3 bay leaves
5 tablespoons of soy sauce
2½ tablespoons of vinegar
5 cloves of garlic chopped
1 to 2 cups of water
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of salt

Method

1. Put the chicken in a bowl and add soy sauce, vinegar, chopped garlic, salt and black pepper. Marinate this in the fridge for about an hour

2. Put the marinated chicken (with all the marinated juices) in a pot with the bay leaves and water on high heat. (It is very important not to mix the Adobo)

3. Once the Adobo is boiling reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20 – 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside.

4. Add sugar to the sauce and reduce for about 5 minutes. Once it has reduced you can add the chicken back into the pot and bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat and serve with hot steamed rice.

This is a really easy dish to make. Believe me it’s only the second time I’ve made it. Hope you enjoyed this months Kulinarya dish. If you are interested in joining our Kulinarya Cooking Club, please feel free to leave a comment or drop by the food blogs below and leave a comment there - we would love to hear from you!

http://www.trissalicious.com/

http://sugarlace.com/

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New Zealand Naturals Golden Manuka Honey Ice Cream

Who doesn’t love ice cream? We have the perfect weather for it at the moment. When Fiona from Marks Communications invited me to a New Zealand Natural ice cream tasting I immediately said yes. Work was really busy the day of the tasting and I just couldn’t make it. Lucky enough I was asked to pick up a tub of the new flavour.



New Zealand Natural has launched Golden Manuka Honey as a new flavour for 2010.

What is Manuka Honey? Manuka honey is made by bees that feed on the flowers of the Manuka or Kanuka bush in New Zealand. This incredible honey is rich in antioxidants and is frequently used to heal coughs and colds.

Apart from Manuka Honey the ice cream also has a hint of Golden Kiwi fruit. Golden Kiwi fruit is one of my favourite fruits. I like them better than the normal Kiwi fruit which I find to tart.



I paired the ice cream with a spice ginger cookie. It was the perfect match. Rich spicy ginger cookies with a sweet and fruity ice cream.


The ice cream itself only has a subtle flavour of the Golden Kiwi. It had a sweetness that was really unique. Tahlia from work described it as a “Ribbons of Manuka Honey woven through layers of buttery ice cream.

For a limited time, New Zealand Natural are offering customers a FREE scoop with any purchase of a regular ice cream to allow people to try the delicious new flavour. Head on down to a New Zealand Natural near you to taste the new flavour. I'm sure you will love it.

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Frozen Chocolate and Banana Bites

As a little girl my mum and dad would drive to the local shops and buy my brother and I a frozen chocolate banana. My brother and I used to eat this so slowly so we could enjoy every single bit. Unlike an ordinary ice block, the frozen banana didnt drip or melt that easily. Less mess and probably a lot better than a normal ice block.

Even though the chocolate bananas were delicious, they were not very attractive. Actually they looked like something you would fine in your loo. Whoops sorry I just had to write that..

With just 3 ingredients I decided to make this delicious dessert a little more appealing.

Frozen Chocolate and Banana Bites

Recipe

350g bar of milk chocolate (I used Cadbury)

3 to 4 bananas

sprinkles or nuts to decorate

Method

1. Slice the bananas into bite size pieces and freeze for an hour

2. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie

3. With a BBQ stick dip the bananas into the chocolate and onto some grease proof paper

4. When the coated bananas are on the grease proof paper, add sprinkles or nuts

5. Once the chocolate is set, put them back into the freezer for 10 minutes before serving

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So Simple - Apple & Cinnamon Slice

At work we have a bake club where someone brings in a sweet or savoury treat for people to eat. I first tasted this slice when Katrina made it for her bake club day. It was so delicious, big chunks of apple and a sweet and buttery base. We all had seconds. When she shared the recipe with me, I couldn’t believe how simple it was to make. It was called an Apple & Cinnamon Slice.

If you want a simple dessert to impress this is it. It is really easy to make and not to mention really delicious.

The recipe below is from http://www.taste.com.au/

Apple & Cinnamon Slice

Ingredients

1 packet golden buttercake mix
1 cup desiccated coconut
125g of melted butter
400g can apple pieces (I used the select brand from Woolies, you can stew your own apples if you wish)
300g sour cream
cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Grease a lamington pan. Line base with some grease proof paper
3. Combine cake mix, coconut and butter in a medium bowl.
4. Press the mixture into the lined pan.5. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until slightly brown. Let it cool for a few minutes.
6. Spread apples evenly over the base (I sliced the apples to make it even), then spread sour cream over the apples and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
7. Bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the sour cream is set.

Once cooled, slice into squares.

I know it isn’t exactly a recipe from scratch but it taste really good. So don’t knock it till you try it. :o)

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Ocean Room Sydney

Last year Christine and I went to Ocean Room to try their Sugar Hit. We arrived and decided that we would take advantage of things and have dinner instead. We chose the Tasting Menu for $90.00.



We start of with the oyster duo. The duo includes a rock oyster with a chilli and lemon dressing and a pacific oyster with shiso basil sorbet and konbu. The oysters were fresh and plump. The combination of flavours didn’t take away from the natural taste of the oysters.

The tuna cornet and anchovy sorbet was the next course. I blue fin tuna was melt in your mouth and the cornet was crunchy. The anchovy sorbet was salty but very good.

The next course was the wasabi prawns. Due to lighting issues I just couldn’t get a good picture of these. Now you just can’t go wrong with soft shell crab. The taco had 2 healthy portions of soft shell crab. This was by far my favourite dish. I literally could have eaten 2 or 3 of these.

The saikyo miso cod was the next course. I was not a very big fan of this dish. I felt that the flavours were too strong for my liking. The cod was a little too firm and my taste buds were a little confused.




The prawn sizzle was great. Big plump pieces of prawns. I even ate the head.




The next dish was the one I was waiting for. I tasted a preview while I was at the World Chefs Showcase. I was looking forward to tasting the different condiments with the pieces of fresh tuna. The truffle salt was beyond words. It was amazing with the piece of blue fin tuna.




By the time the shansho pepper steak came out I was full. I can’t believe how much food was coming out. I only had a small piece of the steak which was juicy.




Chris and I basically just stared at the next course. We took a bit of a break before we ate this. It was a selection of nigiri sushi.




While we took a break and my dinner buddy was in the ladies I noticed a table who seem to be on some kind of double date. Chris came back with a grin on her face. She said that there was a girl in the bathroom on her mobile phone asking her friends to rescue her from this horrible date. A few minutes later the girl came out and joined the table of 3. Oh how I felt for her. We both wanted to rescue her from the horrible date that she was on.

So back to the food, after the selection of sushi we were on our last course which was dessert. We were presented with a pretty small share plate of dark chocolate and cherry torte, an apple tea cake with apple sorbet and marinated chestnuts and a crème brulee. The dessert was ok. My favourite was the crème brulee. Oh how I wish we could have been presented with bigger portions of this.








Ocean Rooms Executive Chef is Raita Noda. He was the head chef of Rise and I had the opportunity of meeting him at the World Chefs Showcase. He is one of Australia’s top Japanese chefs. His passion for Japanese food really shows in his tasting menu.

Ocean Room is a fabulous restaurant. I’m glad I got the chance to go. I will certainly be making another trip on a special occasion. The staff are friendly and the view is to die for. It’s a perfect destination for a romantic dinner, a blind date ehehehe or a relaxed dinner with friends.


Ocean Room
Ground Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal
Circular Quay West
The Rocks Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: 02 92529585
Fax: 02 92529586
Email: oceanroom@oceanroomsydney.com

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Kwek Kwek or Tukneneng - Filipino Street Food

Kwek Kwek or Tukneneng is a Filipino snack often found at street vendors in the Philippines. It’s basically Chicken or Quail eggs deep fried with an orange batter. I first heard about this snack from my cousin Grace. She was telling me how much she loved it, and how my cousin Ping made the best ones.

I asked Ping to make me some so I can taste it. I couldn’t believe that something so simple could taste so darn good.






There are many variations to this dish. Most good cooks never measure so when I asked Ping for the recipe she just told me that she put a little bit of this and a pinch of that.

The recipe below is based on what she gave me

Kwek Kwek or Tukneneng

Ingredients

12 quail eggs peeled
1 cup flour
About 1/2 cup of water
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
Orange food colouring
pepper

Oil for deep frying.

Method

1. Mix flour and pepper in a bowl
2. Add oyster sauce and food colouring and mix
3. Add the water a little bit at a time until the batter is the consistency of thickened cream.
4. Dunk each quail egg into the batter and deep fry until golden



Kwek Kwek or Tukneneng is normally served with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce made with vinegar, sugar, soy, chilli, salt and pepper.
Despites its funny name, this is a delicious snack. Its also really easy to make.

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Did you say Chocolate Pasta?

I was walking past Sugar Fix one day when I came across some Chocolate Pasta. I was examining the clear bag thinking maybe it was chocolate shaped as pasta. Well it wasn't. It was actually pasta flavoured with cocoa. I have never seen anything like this. I bought a bag to try.

I opened the packet and a strong chocolate smell hit me. I boiled two handfuls of the pasta and waited for it to cool. Simple is always best when trying new things. I tossed the pasta through some white chocolate shavings and topped it with some berries.

It was very unusual. I expected it to taste like a chocolate bar, instead it was a subtle cocoa flavour. It was similar to eating a bowl of Champorado which is a Filipino Chocolate Rice dish.

If you are curious about Chocolate pasta, you can actually buy it online from http://www.theprofessors.com.au

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