Wayside Inn @ South Melbourne

I am sure this is not the first time I have mentioned this before but it has taken me awhile to find a steakhouse in Melbourne similar to the ones that you will get in Brisbane (i.e. in a pub, choose your meats, off to the grill, eat with nice chunky chips and wash it down with a beer and minus all the fancy ambience and big price tag). Then again, we are in Melbourne where everything is a little posher, classier and more expensive, so to look for something that is a little more affordable was always a harder thing to do. Coupled by the fact that I am always side tracked with phases where we either crave for all things Asian or busy experimenting in the kitchen, it has finally taken 8 months to visit our first Melbourne steakhouse.

Wayside Inn was our venue for the night. From the outside, it looks like some run down pub (especially in the dark) but walk in and you are greeted with a minimalist and modern dining area, which was pleasant but didn't seem to gel in with the facade.

Apart from a small selection of grain fed and grass fed cuts, they have a rotisserie menu which serves a different meat everyday. I can't wait to go back on a Friday to have their suckling pig.

Complimentary bread and butter is always a plus in my books, especially butter since the Wife has been encouraging me to spread my bread with some less fat margarine at home.

They have quite a selection of oysters and we ordered a variety of 12 with a shallot vinegar. The names of the oysters escapes my mind at the moment but if I must recommend, ask for the smaller and expensive ones (I am sure they will let you know which ones).

We came here for steak and steak is what we got. A generous 500gram grass fed rib eye on bone with bernaise sauce. I didn't ask if their meats were dry aged but it lacked a little intensity that you get with dry aged meat. As with some places, there was a lack of seasoning (I love my steak with a nice crust of salt and pepper).

Unfortunately with any finer restaurant in town, you have to order separate sides as all you get is a handful of salad leaves, albeit with a beautiful tangy dressing. We had a hand cut chips to go with it but we had better (no way near what we had in Aria even though the prices were comparable).

However all that being said, I am happy to have paid $42 for the steak (no stinking of the whole apartment, cleaning up the pan and complaints of my meat being cooked a little rare).

< span>By the end of my protein fix, we were stuffed but I couldn't resist ordering an ice-cream sandwich. I remember it was a classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter (there was no need to listen on before I wanted one) and we polished it off pretty quickly.

While the place got quite busy by the time we left, it wasn't terribly noisy and service was pretty good. It was nice to know that we could escape for a good meal, just merely a 10 minute drive away from home.

Matter of fact, we were so happy with the place, we popped up the week after for their happy hour (3-6pm) oyster special; half dozen oysters and a drink for $14.

No amount of oysters was going to fill me up for dinner so we shared a fish and chips (off the bar menu). No complaints except maybe for $24, I originally expected a bigger serve of fish (forgetting that it was a gastropub after all).

However now that we are on a semi diet before our trip to the US of A meaning less red meat for the time being, which may mean not seeing ourselves coming back too soon, Wayside Inn is definitely on our list of places to go back to.

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Something about the place that both the Wife and I love and when steak is on the m! enu, I a m always a happy man.

A Night at Hennessy Artistry 2012, Kenanga Wholesale City!

** Guest post by Pamela, since I was in BKK for the World Gourmet Festival 2012

Hennessy Artistry was the place to be on Saturday night. The second installment of 2012s Global Art of Mixing Trilogy promised a night of fist-pumping dance music, delicious drinks and an exciting crowd. And boy, Hennessy do know how to throw a party

Before the party-goers headed into the main room, they had a chance to experience the super-cool Hennessy 360 Cam (and have their 5 minutes of fame).

There were plenty of drinks to go around that night and guests got to sample the different mixes of Hennessy. Hennessy Berry seemed to be a favorite among the ladies (and even some of the guys too :P )

Note from Rebecca: I would say KWC was an ideal venue; plenty of parking (legal!), safe area (proper building vs open space somewhere in nowhere) and spacious partying space! I attended manyHennessy Artistry events before this and THIS one; this I heard was one of the best!

The main highlight of the night of course was Eva Simons. To say the crowd went completely gaga would be an understatement, especially when she belted out her club anthem, Take Over Control.

All in all, it was an unforgettable night. Heres to the next edition of Hennessy Artistry!

Recipe: Aloo Gobi (Indian Butter Spiced Potato and Cauliflower)

Gosh, I do love these cook-alongs... it makes me get out of my comfort zone and cook something which I do not usually cook at home. So, for my third entry for "Cook Like A MasterChef", I will be sharing a recipe for an Indian butter spiced potatoes and cauliflower dish, better known as Aloo Gobi.

Aloo Gobi is a traditional North Indian vegetarian curry made with potatoes (aloo), cauliflower (gobi) and Indian spices. The recipe I chose to use is taken off MasterChef Australia, by their sponsor Western Star. The ingredients were easily accessible in KL and the recipe was easy and straightforward.

Although the black mustard seeds (biji sawi) and garam masala are listed as optional on the original recipe, try not to skip these ingredients (unless you cannot get hold of them) since I feel that they are essential spices in this dish. Personally, I felt that the yoghurt wasn't a necessary addition, I liked the dish more without the yoghurt as the taste of the spices were more prevalent. Btw, I only added half the yoghurt amount as stated in original recipe so do tweak this as you please. I used freshly grated turmeric instead of ground turmeric, which gives it the dish a lovely vibrant yellow hue (but what a chore trying to remove the stain from your fingers and plates!).

Overall, we loved this aloo gobi recipe, and will definitely be making it more often from now on. I do hope! that yo u will give this a try at home.



Aloo gobi (Indian Butter Spiced Potato and Cauliflower)
Recipe adapted from MasterChef Australia
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
100g butter (you can also use ghee or 2 tbsp vegetable oil)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds (jintan putih)
1 tsp turmeric (I used freshly grated turmeric)

1 tsp garam masala
400g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
300g cauliflower, cut into large florets

1 cup water
2 long green chillies, finely sliced (I used red chillies)
1/4 cup coriander leaves, to garnish

Scallions, finely chopped, to garnish (optional)
200g fresh natural yogurt, for serving (I used 100g but this could be omitted)

Salt and pepper to taste

Grated turmeric

The ingredients for aloo gobi

Black mustard seeds and cumin seeds

1. In a large frying pan or wok over medium high heat, melt butter, then add onion, g! arlic, g inger and spices (turmeric, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds and garam masala) and cook for 2 minutes until fragrant and onions are golden.

2.Add potatoes, and gently fry for 1 minute. Then add the water and season to taste with salt and some pepper, stir to coat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Remove the lid and stir in cauliflower and chilli, and cook for a further 10 minutes, until cauliflower and potatoes are tender and glossy. There should only be just enough liquid to moisten the vegetables.

4.To serve, spoon onto a serving platter, scatter with coriander and scallion and drizzle with yogurt.

This is another nice way of getting your children to eat cauliflower!

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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like a MasterChef" bloghop which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Anuja of Simple Baking. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe (from the contestants, judges or even sponsors) from any MasterChef websites or cookbooks (any countries) and blog hop with us for the whole mo! nth of S eptember 2012.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in September 2012 - please do not link older posts.

Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Anuja of Simple Baking and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

You can get the HTML code here: get the InLinkz code (Click on the link, copy and paste the HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML mode when you paste in the code)

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:

The Press Room @ Pavilion

The Press Room has taken its time to fan out, finally branching out this month to Pavilion, nearly three years after first opening in Bangsar Shopping Center.

Entries on The Press Room at BSC: Nov. 23, Nov. 30and Dec. 14, 2009.

But this isn't a carbon copy of BSC's Press Room; singular specialties here include toasted 'Poilane' bread, named for the French boulanger Lionel whose stone-ground flour, wood-fired sourdough inspired what's served at Pavilion's Press Room Bistro.

Relish The Press Room's bread with crimson cold cuts like beef cecina and turkey chorizo ...

... or some of the creamiest seafood pate commercially available in KL ...

... or cheese: Roquefort and Reblochon were what we had, but Brie and Camembert are ready for customers craving milder flavors.

Also exclusive to Pavilion's Press Room: a European Josper charcoal broiler oven, supplying indoor barbecue-like possibilities for not only this rib-eye steak but a selection of salmon, tuna, prawns, spring chicken and lamb. Offered through midnight, with vanilla-apple puree.

Might rank this my favorite lasagna of 2012. Can't-be-beaten comfort food, splendidly soft, made luxurious with mushroom duxelles and white truffle oil.

Ron Zacapa Mojito and Pressroom Reporter (tanqueray 10, grand marnier, lemon juice, soda).

Paul Jaboulet red and white, sold by both bottle and glass.

The Press Room Bistro,

Level 3, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Terrific Cooks

What a day it was! Murphy sent the wrong dining table the day before the event, messed up the socket where my new KitchenAid mixer was plugged, not letting any current through (thank God I checked the day before and the electrician came after work hours), messed up the fridge too because it got warmer and warmer...basically everything went wrong. Even my carrot cake, which I've made hundreds of times but this time I made a mistake of measuring by weight rather than volume. Oil is lighter than water and the resulting cake was so soggy it broke apart when turned out. I threw it out and started on another one early in the morning, after a sleepness night when I realised that the reason why my jellies gelled so quickly was that I had mistaken agar powder for gelatine. Begone, Murphy!

But nobody seemed to notice the flaws and I am so happy and thankful for all the readers and friends who came for the opening. I am especially happy to meet some of you who have written to me through the years, either by email or to this blog, and by so many of you who came to tell me about the success you had using recipes from this blog. Do leave comments because I want a relationship with readers. I don't want this to be a monologue blog; it's lonely.

Anyway, here are some of the photos Eric (5 guys confirmed their attendance and 3 backed out last minute) took of the party. I am not putting our group photos here (although you can find them on Facebook--hungerhunger) because I don't have all your permission but there's a photo where everybody turned away so yeah, that should be okay to post.

I'm going to call my classes 'Terrific Cooks'. Those who come will all be terrific cooks:) Btw, I sincerely apologize for not replying some of you, and even omitting some friends from the list--inadvertently--because I was so busy getting the new place ready. My hub is in Shanghai and it would have been tons easier with him around but I decided that I must start because it's already ! Septembe r, and the holidays are dawning.

Another thing. Sorry we totally forgot about milk and sugar for the coffee and tea. I didn't even leave coffee cups out because the store where I ordered the cups weeks ago did not tell me that they couldn't source the cups anymore. It's great to live on Borneo Island, but I can't even get 50 good tea cups.


Devilled eggs made by my son Wey. Everybody liked it. I think the yolks could be piped fuller.


This was a surprise hit. I just thought I'd make crostinis using the same ingredients that I'd use for pizzas. This was toasted baguette slices, spread with anchovies-infused oil ( a great tip from my reader-friend, David, who's a chef in Bangkok), sliced cherry roma tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, Thai basil and shaved parmesan. After the crostinis were gone, I realised that I completely left out the balsamic glaze which would have made the crostinis beyond excellent!


The serimuka was made about 4 hours before the class, which meant they had hardly cooled down, let alone set firm. I also had to hand-blend the custard because they turned lumpy when cooked too quickly.


Green tea swiss roll with white chocolate (Valhorna) ganache filling. This was my demo cake.


Sakura jellies. Not everybody liked this because of the saltish taste and dried plum flavor but I thought it would be interesting to serve as dried sakura is rare and not many people have tasted it.


Carrot cake with flowers (chrysanthemum, someone said) made from pineapple.


My friend Elaine makes the best scones so I had her make lots of mini scones. They were great I heard--gone so fast.




I know, but this is the only photo I have of the curry puffs that my friend Tina brought. And nobody took photos of my name cards...

I want my classes to be enjoyable and interactive. I will gladly teach and share my cooking experience (aka mistakes). The home setting (although I don't live there) is more comfortable and personal than a shoplot and I hope will be a place where you relax, have fun, meet new and old friends and eat great food.