GOLDEN PLAINS ROTI WRAPS

At the start of the Golden Plains festival, i gravitated towards one food stall. The banner out front read "HOTTIES EAT ROTI'S", so i followed instructions and did so, exclusively, the whole weekend. The beef red curry Roti Wrap was the favourite, and the vegie yellow curry wasn't bad. The breakfast wrap was a bit too much really. I didn't feel much like a hottie by the end of the dirty weekend.






The view from the Roti stall, following the last supper.

WOMEN'S DAY LASAGNE

This blog has got me into trouble already. On International Women's Day, i was ordered to arrive at the dinner party earlier to help with Lasagne. Because of this blog, some of my friends are under the grand illusion that i can actually cook. I've never cooked lasagne in my life, and the most assistance i could offer was to phone my mother for bechamel sauce directions.

Our host - however flustered to begin with - did a marvelous job and made eight or ten ladies very full and happy.




Layering up.


The host.




Voilà... Vegie Lasagne with a side of Pear-shaped Tomato and Butter Bean salad.

The company was exquisite and exclusively female, asides from a male housemate who sniffed out the gender bias and took his rightful place, hidden away in the lounge room. I had taken a few guests by surprise, deciding to wear a dress and make like a lady for International Women's Day. It was noted that many of them had not seen me in a dress since the days of school uniforms. Or, heaven forbid... since the hideous purple latex pinafore-esque dress i donned at our school formal!

I head out in Collingwood afterwards. And nearly ate the concrete a few times trying to walk in girly shoes after a blury amount of beers.





Come morning, after a long night out on the turps, a Hangover Sandwich was desperately called for.

FISHING TRIP

We had a fabulous Ladies Only Fishing Trip a few weekends ago down on the Bellarine Peninsula. Nine ladies, out at sea at the crack of dawn, brandishing rods and breakfast beers.... What could be better?!


The gang on the way to the pier...


One lass caught some coral and seaweed.


One caught a freekin baby stingray! Look at it's cute little face! Thrown back of course.


I almost caught this dude when i felt something heavy on my line, started reeling, and up popped the seal with my fish in its mouth. There was a momentary struggle, and unfortunately the seal won.

Luckily we caught some actual fish as well....


Leather Jacket.


Rass.


8am is Beer O'clock at sea.


After a couple of hours, the fish count was 17, including snapper, flathead, blue devils, parotfish, rass, leather jackets, and i can't remember what else.

We took our catch home, some whole and some fillited, and got stuck into it. They were cooked up in various ways, but here's one recipe that went down a treat:


VINYL LICKA'S FISH RECIPE

Hi Guys,

Here is the Famous Fish recipe...

I believe that any fish would be nice for this dish as long as it's fillited.

The recipe was originally made for Trevally fish, although these fish fillets are HUGE...

2 Limes
2 lemons
1/4 of a cup of Fish sauce
1/4 of a cup of Sweet chilli sauce
1 clove of garlic
1 table spoon of vegetable oil
Tubed lemon grass (Lemon grass in a tube)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of flour
2 fillets of Trevally or 4 fillets of other fish

Firstly you will need to make the marinade.
In a cup you will need to
Squeeze 1 and 1/2 limes
Squeeze 1 lemon
A quarter of a cup of fish sauce
quarter of a cup of sweet chilli sauce
1 table spoon of Lemon grass
1 glove of garlic (crushed)
1 table spoon of veg oil

Give it a good stir. Place it in the fridge whilst you cook 2 table spoons of butter in a pan. Once butter is cooked put the butter in a bowl and put the marinade in another bowl. Get the fish fillets and soak them in the butter then place the fillets in the marinade. Leave the fillets in the marinade and put it in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes (Depending on how tasty you want it you can leave it in there for as long as you want). No longer then an hour...

When you feel it has marinated enough. Put a cup of flour in a bowl. Take the fish out of the marinate and cover it in flour both sides.

Heat up a fry pan. Place another tablespoon of butter in the pan. Wait till butter is all melted and the fry pan is hot. Place marinated floured fish fillets in the fry pan. whilst the fish is cooking, spread a bit more of the marinade on the fish whilst its cooking and squeeze a little bit more lemon on the fish each side. Cook each side for about 4 minutes each side till the fish is white, This will make it a melt in your mouth sensation.








Recommended avec pommes frites.

[More fishing photos at flickr]

SHARK FIN YUM CHA

Shark Fin, 131 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

My friend had a Sunday Yum Cha for her birthday at Shark Fin House in Chinatown. We feasted on a heap of Dumplings and Buns and Calamari and Chinese Broccoli and Desserts and Tea and Champagne.... and all for $18 a head! Shi-iiit. I'm a hafta do yum cha fortnightly i reckon. Shout out to my good friend Lazy Susan.

I felt the Curse of the Shellfish Blues again, and missed out on lotsa delish thangs. I took a bite into one particular dumpling, tasted prawn, and sneakily savoured its flavour for a moment before having to surrender the remainder to someone else.


Baskets & Teapots


Octopus


Dessert and Pink Champagne


Mango Custard Heart


The Dessert Trolley - check out that jelly! French jelly?

http://www.sharkfin.com.au/

Yum Cha was followed by a fabulously lax afternoon of cuppas and reading the paper in what i dubbed NoCa [North Carlton], after a discussion as to what SoHo stood for. Is it South of Houston?


The day flew by and we tucked into Pumpkin Soup as an evening chill set in.


Regrettably, i had to retire early to do some work, but i was suitably pleased that this be the walk that's to and fro our houses... Due South up my street for blocks and blocks of palm littered median and mouthwatering two-storied terraces. Yum.

AFTERNOON DELIGHT?

I had the most grandiose vision for an afternoon snack while I procrastinated over a BAS statement… I was envisaging a magnificent swirling birds nest of Angel Hair that housed in the centre, a Poached Egg, dripped with a Wasabi-Hollandaise hybrid.

It didn’t quite turn out the way it looked in my imagination. The pasta, which was already cooked, had been broken up, and was incapable being trained into the wild spiral I had planned for it. I had mushrooms that needed using, so reheated the pasta in a mushroom mustard cream sauce. I got lazy about the hollandaise idea and just mixed up some wasabi and soy mayo.

Anyway… here you have it…




This shit was totally too intense. Borderline sickening. And not very attractive to look at. In retrospect... In future... I'd keep the pasta ultra plain, allowing for the yolk to spill through it as you eat.