It’s been nearly 2 years

So there you go. It’s been nearly 2 years and what have I done? Nothing to be honest. I could say that I’ve learnt a lot about people and sociology but it’s still useless because it’s far far away from what I’ve been wanting to do. I didn’t want to blog because I’m ashamed of myself for letting this prolong until now. I guess I could say that I’ve been running away from my blog, my dreams.

The good news is, I’ve finally left everything behind once again in order to start afresh. I’ve always been an optimistic person and it is this key attribute of mine that has been constantly getting me to move forward. This will be the starting point of my second journey back into my dreams. It starts with coming back home… .

BP: Week 7 – Fruit Jelly, Poached Pear Tart

Sigh. Yes I admit that I have been stuck in an extremely bad procrastination mood. It’s already week 10 and I still have yet to finish writing about week 6. geez. Maybe I should skim by but let’s see how this goes.

Jelly and Poached Apple

Like I said “last week”, this week we made jellies. Making nice jellies are surprisingly a bunch of hassles. What we did was layer the bottom of the tray with a little gelatine thingy (I added lots and lots of Cointreau ^^), cool it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes, then start decorating the ‘bottom’ (which will be the top after turning it over) with fruits etc. After that, fill it with a little layer of more gelatine thingy (only a little, to prevent the fruits from floating around, 5-10 minutes, and then fill it to cover the first layer of fruits, and then ta-da: 3 more layers to go… . So, now you know how time consuming it is to make a product look nice.

My Compote

We also learnt to make fruit compote and fruit coulis on the first day. And mm bad news, I missed the third day because I just couldn’t get myself up. :p Not a very good excuse but… oh well. Though it wasn’t anything special on the third day, but I really missed out on making Creme Brulee: I would’ve gotten to use the freakin flame gun thingy! :/ One of these days, I’m going to go and get myself a flame gun thingy and use it to burn stuff. Rawr!

Oh and by the way, compotes are basically fruits served in its cooking liquid. You can easily serve it with ice cream by the way. Yumm… . Saw how my compote looks? Now imagine it with other yummy stuffs. ^^ And on the ladle (spoon thingy), the thick syrupy goodness running down can also be called a coulis: basically a thick sauce of puree or something (strained), usually fruits or vegetables. Good stuff to dribble all over ice cream (again). ^^

Alchoholic Bench

Just a side note, the above is a photo of my bench space. See that bottle of wine? See that coffee cup? Well, in that cup was initially a mixture of apple juice and Cointreau. Eventually the bottle of Cointreau ran out (ahem) and it was eventually filled with red wine (we used the red wine to poach the pears). Don’t ask me why that cup was filled with apple juice/Cointreau/red wine because as far as I know, it is against the rules to drink or eat or especially drink alchohol in the kitchen especially while working. But you know, I didn’t say anything. ^^

Oh and see how neat my space is. ^^

Uncivilised People

Before I forget, I really want to whinge about something. I’ve always wanted to talk about this but this time, I have photos to prove it. Ja’s class apparently was pretty civilised about it. According to her, once the chef is done with demonstrating, the students are usually considerate about taking photos of the finished product, some choosing to take a quick photo of the goods and some others choosing to use the zoom function on their camera.

Uncivilised People (again)

In my class, those barbarians (yes I’m a bitter person, especially towards inconsiderate people) tend to start swarming even before Chef Gert says that they could come up to the front for photo taking sessions. Secondly, almost every one of them takes more than 2 photos, averaging about 10 clicks per person: taking a photo from the top, the bottom, at an angle, at another angle, you get the gist. Thirdly, the barbarians swarm around the finished product like flies over a fresh dung on a hot summer day and you know how that is: irritatingly annoying, like flies on a hot summer day. Extremely inconsiderate and constantly blocking the lights, being too close to the food, even (oh my God) touching the finished product and rearranging them to suit her camera angle (YES I HAVE THE HUGHEST URGE TO NAME YOU). Sigh… I just can’t believe anyone moving the product around, or bringing it closer to themselves to have a better shot with her (yes HER) camera.

Totally… barbaric… uncivilised… inconsiderate… rude… girl. (and the rest (most) of my classmates too)

4 minutes after with Chef Gert finally cutting it (yes, I posted this photo because SHE is in it)

So, it usually takes me around 10 minutes of waiting around before I could get a nice shot (READ: ONE SINGLE SHOT) of Chef Gert’s finished product. In the photos above, you can see my classmates swarming around the poor pear tart. Sigh, I want to keep whinging but, let’s move on… .

Tarts and Jellies!

Oh, and the pear tart: inside is pastry cream covered with a layer of Dacquoise base (made with almond meal, meringue, flour and vanilla essence: tastes really good) and then topped with pears poached in red wine (yummy). The photo on the left is Chef Gert’s (so beautiful) whereas the other one is mine (I made a huge accidental mistake in arranging the pear slices, see if u can spot the difference). The jelly in the middle is Hsiu Yen’s whereas the other partly hidden jelly is mine. ^^ No, I didn’t mean for it to be hidden but here’s the story.

Make sure you’re patient, because impatience will get you nowhere. Haha. I was too impatient with waiting for the gelatine to harden and when I poured the next layer of gelatin in, my beautifully arranged fruits ended up floating around. So because of lack of time, I ended up dumping all the fruits inside the mould. ^^ So much for being patient.

Cho Dumpling King, Haymarket

It was a Sunday and I had absolutely no reason to go to Sydney whatsoever. I mean, you really need a good motivation in order to willingly go through at least 3 hours total traveling time. Unfortunately for me, there was a major blackout in one of the Sydney cities and the therefore, the train was delayed. Instead of one 90 minute train ride, I had to spend 3 hours on 3 different trains just to get to Sydney central (another 3 hours back home). >< 

Cho Dumpling King

Fortunately as Ja and I were both walking around aimlessly under the Sydney rain having a great time being lost in Glebe, Ultimo and Haymarket, I happened to chance upon this restaurant: Cho Dumpling King. What caught my eyes first was the amount of people waiting outside (I later guessed that most of them were waiting for their take-away orders). I mean, how often do you see Chinese (don’t you dare get technical on me ^^) people lining up outside a Chinese restaurant. 

Glorious side dishes

The second thing that caught my eyes are the abundant side dishes available which you can see from outside the restaurant itself. There’s a huge menu plastered over the front of the shop and apparently, we had to place our order with the waitress guarding the entrance first (she looked like she would bite if she had to) before you’re allowed inside this little Taiwanese restaurant. Sadly, it seems that the dumplings have all been sold out and I’m sure it would have been great to taste the dumpling king’s dumplings. ^^ (a good reason to come back again)

Simple dinner

Ja and I decided to share a main and 2 side dishes: rice with pork belly (Taiwanese style?), fried anchovies with chili and (stir-fried?) spinach with garlic and some pork belly. Total cost = $12 for 2. O.o The side dishes (changed daily) are $3 a dish and you pretty much just walk to the window and pick up whatever you want (while deftly manuevering yourself between other diners thanks to the small space ^^). So, if you like, you can pretty much grab yourself 6 different dishes for $20! Tell me that isn’t a bargain.

Mmm more side dishes

A few minutes (quick!) after we sat down at our table, the food started coming out and guess what, when Ja first tasted she told me it made her happy. ^^ That, is what I call good, homely, comfort food that you often can’t get at most expensive restaurants. It just saddens me that I didn’t know about this place earlier and at a time when my days in Australia are starting to get numbered. Best Taiwanese in Sydney, enough said.

Cho Dumpling King
Shop 6, 8 Quay St
Haymarket NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9281 2760