Cook It: Coconut, Dates and Chocolate Balls.

Exactly four days ago was Valentines day. While I don't really care for this hallmark holiday and while I seriously got sick of the amount of roses that flooded my Facebook newsfeed, it did give me a reason to make some really delicious guilt-free chocolate treats! Coconut, dates and chocolate balls - a perfect present for your valentine... or yourself. And the best part is you don't have to justify making it for a special holiday because its a chocolatey treat that is 100% sugar free and 100% dairy free... not to mention it's super duper easy to make!

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cups | Pitted medjool dates
1 Cup | Almonds
1 Cup | Cocoa powder (not for hot chocolate but the ones for baking)
1-2 Cups | Fine Desiccated Coconut
1/5th of a Cup | Water (room temperature)

*You will also need a food processor

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Take out the seeds in your dates with a knife and measure out your almonds and cocoa powder.

2. Pour your pitted dates, almonds and cocoa powder into a food processor and blend till they all break down.

3. Pour water and continue to blend until the texture is like a thick pasty dough/soft clay.

4. Take out little bits of the dough and roll with your hands into balls.

5. Roll it in a pile of Fine Desiccated Coconut till covered.

6. Put in the fridge for 3 hours and enjoy! (you can eat it straight away but it tastes a lot better once it has served some time in the fridge).

Brewing uni love at Brewing Now

In only a week and half or so, I'll be leaving my beautiful 3 month summer break for a gazzilion pages of law readings and an unbearable amount of media assignments. My holiday is about to come to a close and while I love university, the 'work' aspect of university is not something I'm REALLY REALLY looking forward to. 

With the new semester just around the corner, I've been spending a lot of my time at uni - buying textbooks, doing stuff with my societies and volunteer programs amongst a myriad of other things and sometimes this can last a whole day so I need a good breakky to keep me going.

Last week, I left home for uni without breakfast and the prospect of having a McDonalds breakfast didn't really excite me so instead, I kept walking through Kingsford and found myself at a relatively new joint in Kingsford: Brewing Now cafe.

It was a bit strange to find a rather hipster cafe in Kingsford but the place seemed decent and looks far more appealing than a hash brown or hot cake form Maccas.

I can never start my day without a cup of tea so a T2 Earl Grey was my first order. Kingsford is not known for quirky cafes but this cafe definitely tickled my fancy the right way in terms of quirkyness... I mean, how beautiful is this presentation! However, it did take 30 minutes for my tea to come which is pretty ridiculous considering tea is just hot water and the loose leaf tea itself.

Brewing Now is situated in very very small premise (almost a hole on the wall) but it caters to quite a few locals in the area - its pretty busy for a very small cafe. While the ambiance was awesome, the service was utterly appalling and this is probably due to understaffing. It took an hour and half for our order to come out and if I could waltz into their kitchen and make it myself, it probably would take 1/15th of the time it took for our food to come to the table.

However, all was forgiven when I tucked into the parmesan and spanish beef sausage melt because it was simply divine! Something so simple yet so flavoursome and satisfying. The beef sausage was an absolute winner - it was salty and tangy. Just beautiful and complemented the melted cheese and bread like peanut butter to jelly.

The mushroom, fried eggs, spinach and spanish beef sausage was just as delicious. The fried eggs were cooked to gooey perfection and the mushrooms and spinach were well seasoned. Just as the beef sausage shone through in the melt, the beef sausage was a winner yet again in this dish.

While the service was terrible, the food definitely acted as a saving grace and it certainly was one, not just for the meal but also for the prospect of returning to uni. Knowing that that there is a rockin' new cafe near to my uni with really delicious food makes the idea of going to uni a little more bearable. At least I can have a nice breakfast before sitting through 2 hours of Public Law right?

Revelling in brunch delight at The Three Williams

As far back as I can remember, rainy days have always been my favourite types of days. While I'm not cray cray about Tay Tay, I must confess that Taylor Swift's lyrics rings true to me: there's something bout the way, the street looks when it's just rained, there's a glow off the pavement. While I enjoy staying home and tucking myself into my blanket on a rainy day, sometimes my favourite thing to do on a rainy day is to go for a drive around my surrounding suburbs not only to revel in the beauty of the streets after its just rained but also in an attempt to search for a good cafe to spend the morning in. 

Just a few days ago, on a rainy morning, I found myself parked outside of The Three Williams cafe. I've read about The Three Williams but never knew where it was located. I knew that it was in Redfern but was unsure as to where exactly it was located so when I drove through my suburb and just kept going straight, I didn't expect to find that The Three Williams is literally 3 turn away from where I live.

Despite the murky weather, the walkway just outside of the cafe were lined with customers awaiting a seat in this up-and-coming cafe.

The wait wasn't too bad - about 30 minutes - and if you're not too hungry and have nothing but time, it's definitely worth the wait. 

Before we delve into a discussion of the food and beverages served at The Three Williams, I'd just like to take a moment to praise the ambiance of the shop and the service. The people working at The Three Williams were all so lovely, speedy and just ultra cool - there's really no other way to describe it. The ambiance is bustling. It's extremely busy but not in a panicky sense of the word but more of an exciting sense of the word. My only complaint is that the dark-ish lighting of the place doesn't bode well for instagrammers and food bloggers because I had to resort to turning on my flash to be able to take the photos below, but that's a very very minor issue.

For beverages we ordered their berry smoothie and their banana smoothie. While I've read a lot about The Three Williams, I've never heard about their berry smoothie so I was excited to give it a try. The berry flavours were strong but not overly sour and the serving is much bigger than it might appear on the photo but in terms of flavour, I'd have to follow The Three Williams lovers' cult and say that their Banana smoothie was the absolute winner.

Coupled with medjool dates and sprinkles of nuts all over the top, the Banana smoothie was simply divine. While in terms of flavour, I think that The Grounds' Banana smoothie might beat this (by a smidge), the consistency of this Banana smoothie was perfection. It wasn't thick to the point that after a few gulps, you'll feel sick to the stomach - it was just the right balance of smoothness and thickness. Definitely a winner.

I don't think you should ever go to The Three Williams without trying their French Toast. The creme and the berries were delicious as were the walnuts. While the brioche was drenched in honey it wasn't overbearing in sweetness which is a huge plus in my books seeing as I'm not a major sweet-tooth. Definitely something that you'll have to try at least once - it is, after all, one of their most popular dishes.

The one thing you can't go to The Three Williams without trying is their narnies. 'Narnie' is a quirky and creative combination of normal bread and naan bread - The Three Williams specialty. I ordered two - the Beef Brisket (above) and the Prawns (below) and both were absolutely fabulous.

Personally, the Beef Brisket narnie was my favourite. The house slaw was full of flavour and the vegetables on top of it were just as flavoursome. The brisket itself was 50-shades-of-melt-in-you-mouth kind of fantastic. The narnie bread itself was soft and complemented the filling of the dish exceptionally. I think this is my favourite order of the day and one that I'd definitely come back for.

The prawn narnie is just as lovely but definitely better serves someone with a more adventurous palette. The prawns which were packed full of delicious savoury flavour was complemented to perfection by the lettuce, hummus and tzatziki. I love the flavours in this dish but if I were to come back to The Three Williams and am only allowed to order one dish, I'd give this one a pass cause the beef narnie was just perfection on a plate.

To top the meal off, we also ordered a fish croquet (served with aioli). I love croquets and I love aioli so this made me very very happy. While the croquet itself was crunchy on the outside and smooth on the inside, what won me over was the delicious, creamy flavour of the aioli. I've never had a better aioli - too delicious for words.

Now knowing that The Three Williams is only a km or two from where I live, I'll definitely come back in the near, not so distant, future!

Battle of Sydney's Top Cafes: The Paramount Coffee Project vs The Grounds

There's nothing more exciting to a foodie than to compare and contrast two of the city's supposed, numero uno cafes against eachother! Its like a catfight, only better because it involves food. Food bloggers and instagrammers are flocking to the two cafes in the spotlight, not only for the good food but also for the beautiful presentations.

The Grounds, Alexandria and Paramount Coffee Project just so happens to be the 4th and 5th most reviewed and blogged about cafes in Sydney at the moment according to Urbanspooon (February 2014). Sitting comfortably in the 2nd spot position on this list is the infamous Devon cafe and if you've been a fooshioner for the past few months, then you would know my sentiments towards Devon cafe therefore, the extent to which I trust this list, isn't that great but I'm always up to giving things a go and that's exactly why I'm working through this top 10 list. So far, I've ventured to the two cafes which are on the hot seat today and thought wouldn't it be interesting to declare which one is the fairest of them all?* Here we go!

Now, The Grounds is probably the most on-demand cafe to have ever opened its doors to Sydney foodies and the hype doesn't seem like it will die anytime soon. Maybe its down to great publicity (remember Kevin Bacon the pig who was stolen) or the millions of dollars worth of investment poured into this McMansion of a cafe but you can't deny that The Grounds is living the cafe dream.

I live rather close to Alexandria and in fact, I grew up 1km away from the site of the Grounds before moving at age 12 so as a local, hearing about this hot new cafe opening up was very exciting and I went to The Grounds in its opening week! Even then, we would have to line up for half an hour minimum to get a seat but it would be worth it... or so I thought. 

"Or so I thought" would be correct because I was definitely disappointed after my breakfast. I believe I ordered a breakfast plate (consisting of sausages and poached eggs) and it wasn't anything special, in fact it was less than ordinary. The plating was beautiful but I thought that after spending an hour in line, that the food would make up for it and it certainly didn't.

However, since my last visit to The Grounds, it has done nothing but flood my entire newsfeed and day-to-day conversations so I thought that it might've improved since and I'm always willing to give things a second chance.

This time, I came for brunch (11.00am) and unsurprisingly we had to wait 20 minutes for a table. I believe we were seated right on time which unfortunately was actually awkwardly timed because the breakfast menu ended at 11.30 and you couldn't order the lunch menu until 12.00pm (you couldn't even place an order the before the minute hand strikes 12pm). So I sat there starved (I skipped breakfast) waiting for 12pm but I did order a Banana Smoothie to save my hunger.

The smoothie took a very very long time to be delivered to my table but I was forgiving considering the fact that they were extremely busy for a weekday. In fact, their weekday traffic is the dreams of other cafe's weekend traffic! 

It wasn't all gloomy thought because the smoothie was the best banana smoothie I've ever had. I love my bananas (they're my favourite fruit) so I'm very picky when it comes to banana smoothies but The Ground's banana smoothie was fabulous. Blended with different kinds of nuts, yoghurt and honey, it was smooth and sweet but wasn't sickening or overpowering. Just the perfect balance and just the perfect consistency for a smoothie.

Finally 12pm came around and I placed my order: The Grounds' Beef Burger

The beef burger came relatively quickly but that's partly because I was one of the first few customers to order from the lunch menu. I must say that the beef patty and cheese was absolutely delicious as was the brioche and mayonnaise while the lettuce was very crunchy indeed. It was a very satisfying burger but I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was the best burger I've ever had but it would respectably make my top 10 list at least.

The burger also came with beer battered chips and a serving of aioli dipping sauce. While the chips were crunchy, it was made all the better when consumed with a dollop of aioli dipping sauce. However, if you're not a fan of spice, the aioli should probably be left untouched because it was quite spicy but for chilli lovers ... more power to you!

Overall, my experience with The Grounds isn't as horrid as my first time there. I wouldn't call it "over-sensationalised" as I would call Devon cafe but it definitely didn't win me over entirely. The service could be better - my waitress wasn't very pleasant but that might've been because they were so busy and she had to tend to a few other tables. I'd give The Grounds a 7/10 as a whole which is respectable but not really as great one would expect a top trending cafe to be.

Next on the chopping block is Paramount Coffee Project, located in Commonwealth Street Surry Hills. 

Now, I was particularly excited to go to PCP because the owners of PCP also owns Sydney's Ruben Hills and my personal favourite... Melbourne's Seven Seeds family! Always a winner in my eyes.

I've been to PCP a few times now but I'll review my latest visit because I ordered similar types of dishes as what I ordered in The Grounds.

The first time I went to PCP, I just came back from my overseas trip and I was staring to get what would become a horrible throat infection and cold so my tastebuds were off and I couldn't really drink anything colder than room temperature. Luckily, the last time I went to PCP I had gotten rid of my cold and instantaneously ordered a very quirky smoothie... The Jam Donut smoothie. I was very very excited and could probably fall off my stool out of excitement had I not been with my friends, two of whom I just officially met that day.

While the Jam Donut wins for creativity and for flavour, I don't think the consistency of the smoothie could dethrone The Grounds' banana smoothie. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the little bursts of jam that would flood through my straw and the presentation was absolutely beautiful and definitely reminds me of a Jam Donut... Well done PCP!

Next, I ordered the Crab Po Boy - PCP's speciality and the hot thing on the menu... all the bloggers are raving about it! Essentially, the Crab Po Boy consists of house slaw and soft shell crab on a brioche bun. While The Ground's burger makes my top 10 burgers list, PCP's Crab Po Boy made my top 1 list. This was actually the best "burger" I've ever had and I'm craving it just thinking about it. I'm a major sucker for soft shell crab, its all I ever order at Thai restaurants and seafood restaurants so to have soft shell crab on a brioche bun was essentially my nirvana. The house slaw was creamy and delicious but the actual coleslaw was still fresh and crunchy. The soft shell crab was flavoursome and crunchy - just the way I like my soft shell crab. The brioche was soft and milky in the middle - a perfect brioche to top off the perfect filling. If the genius who made this happen ever read this... all I have to say is that the next time someone asks me who is the one person dead or alive that I would want to have dinner with, I'll definitely say you because it probably means you'll cook this for me for dinner... and I'd happily eat this everyday if I could!

To top off a fabulous meal, the service in PCP is always great. The first time I went there I sat at the tea bar and talked to the barista for a solid half an hour about different types of tea. The staff at PCP are always so lovely and very helpful. If I had to give PCP a score overall, I'd give them a big fat 10/10 because their creativity is just beyond amazing.

So the Fooshion & Trinketer has spoken... PCP is the fairest of the Urbanspoon Top 10 list (but The Grounds is not too shabby either!).
*All are based on my own opinion.

Cook It: Agedashi Tofu

When I'm in one of my 'vegetarian' or 'health conscious' moods or when I just want something easy, light and comforting, I tend resort to a plate of Edamame and a bowl of Agedashi Tofu. While it's easy enough for me to make Edamame at home especially since an Asian grocer just opened up 10 meters away from my abode, the Agedashi part of the combo would make me have to drag myself to my local Japanese restaurant which isn't that far but sometimes you just want to put yourself on house arrest!

I'm not sure if it's because I'm lazy or because I feel like claiming the 'domestic goddess' title but I decided to experiment and make my own Agedashi tofu and my oh my was it delicious! Who knew that making Agedashi is as easy as... ummm... making something else just as easy. Because i'm incredibly satisfied of my own creation, I've decided to share my recipe with you all. It's easy, delicious and if you're a broke uni student... then it's uber cheap. So here we go, an Agedashi recipe that serves 3 people (or 1 extremely hungry uni student):

Recipe

• 300 gSilken tofu 
• 375 ml* Dashi Sauce - found in most local Asian stores 
• 80 ml*Soy sauce 
• 60 ml*Mirin (sweet rice wine) - found in most local Asian stores 
• 3 tbsp*Potato starch 
• 2 tspBonito flakes - found in most local Asian stores 
• 625mlOil (preferably Olive Oil), for frying
• Spring onions, thinly sliced (optional)
• Water*

* Simply a guide, adjust according to taste

Instruction

1. Drain the tofu from its packaging and place on top of a few layers of paper towels.

2. Proceed to wrap the tofu with the paper towels until completely covered (on all sides).

3. Lay the tofu (wrapped in the paper towels) between two plates as this will ensure that the paper towels will absorb most of the moisture in the tofu. If possible, lay it down on a slightly bigger plate than the one covering it.

4. Mix the dashi sauce, mirin and soy sauce in a saucepan - adjust according to taste and add water if required to dilute the concoction. Place on stove, bring to boil and let it cool down on the stove while you are prepping the tofu.

5. Unwrap tofu from paper towel. The tofu should look somewhat dishevelled and much drier than it was previously. Ensure that you are very careful when handling it as it tends to be more fragile than it was before the moisture was absorbed out of it.

6. Slice tofu in half lengthways and into threes sideways - You will be left with 6 tofu cubes (generally, 2 for each serving).

7. Roll tofu in potato starch and massage the starch into the tofu where required.

8. Heat your oil in a saucepan before placing your potato starch covered tofu into the pan. Generally, the oil should be half the depth of your tofu. Any oil will do but olive oil is best as it is much healthier for you.

9. Wait until all sides of the tofu is seared but still slightly transparent before taking it out and placing it on a paper towel-covered bowl. Note: You do not want your potato starch to fry till it is golden brown as it may dry out the tofu.

10. Once the paper towel has absorbed some of the oil from the tofu, place it into a small serving bowl and drown the tofu in the sauce you made earlier - it should still be warm but you may want to heat it again before serving.

11. Drizzle some bonito flakes on top of your Agedashi tofu and enjoy! Optional: You could also finely chop spring onions and drizzle a few slices on top of your Agedashi Tofu.

Forever and Always,

Nisa

UPDATES

I feel like it has been a lifetime since I last blogged and I sincerely apologise for that dearest fooshioners - I've been a little busy travelling, volunteering and working over the past month so I had to compromise my beloved blog and readers <3.

As some of you may I know, I went to Indonesia earlier this month and I had every intention to blog about my culinary adventures however I came down with a bad case of food poisioning. In the 10 days that I was there, I spent 5 of it eating nothing but bananas and porridge because that is all I could handle so unfortunately, I have no material to share with you all. 

Before you scurry away from this neglected blog, I urge you to stay because it's not all horrid on this side of the screen. While I was culinarily challenged throughout my trip, I tried to mend the pain by shopping and shopping and even more shopping!!! So to all my frustrated fashion readers, you can breathe a sigh of relief, put that axe down and sing a little 'halleluja' because a fashion and beauty haul will pop on this space not too long from now!

I've also got a bucketload of Sydney cafes/restaurant reviews lined up for the near future so watch this space. Another exciting venture that I will start just as soon as I publish this post is a new segment called 'Cook It'. Essentially, it'll consists of easy-to-make-at-home recipes that are absolutely delicious. 

So that's all for now, lets rekindle this blogship and I will see you in a bit.

All my love,

Nisa