Tuesday 27 November 2007

Snot Block review.


The Vanilla Slice, aka the Snot block. As Aussie as the lamington or the pav.

People blog about them.

People compete about them.

People make travesties out of them. **Warning.. viewing the recipe in this link may cause some of you to vom**

People do television stories on them.

They are so iconic, people even do this to them.

There are more recipes online for Snot Blocks, that I've had... well... Snot Blocks.

Not for me, the rubberized, gelatinous mass sandwiched between two Sao Biscuits. I want the real deal. Flaky puff pastry, custard that's been whipped until it's fluffy. I am not a fan of VS's with cream between the custard and the top pastry. Makes 'em too hard to chow down on. I like my custard almost cheese cake-like.

Since I've been blogging, I haven't managed to get down to The Conti in Sorrento which, in my humble opinion, has the best VS's I've ever had. Vastly superior to the ones next door at Just Fine Foods, a Sorrento Bakery that proclaims itself to be the home of "The Best Vanilla Slice".

A few weekends ago, Furry and I ate a VS at Flash Duck, in Rosebud (for the full story, click here.)

And here, in glorious Technicolour, are their Vanilla Slices.

They're big. The pretty much fill the salad plate on which they're served.



I got mine nude (no cream or icecream)

The ratio of icing sugar was good. We all know what happens when you open your mouth to cram in a piece of VS and accidentally inhale some of the icing sugar on top. The coughing fit can last up to 2 hours. Believe me, I have seen icing sugar come out of people's noses after doing this. This is NOT GOOD, and can justifiable be called a Vanilla Thriller Killer.

The custard was lighter than the Conti version, a white wine custard whipped with cream, I suspect. This was a good thing, given the amount of food I'd already ingested. I didn't need any further artery-hardening, cheesecake rich dairy produce!!

According to the staff, they're made exclusively for the restaurant by a retired pastry chef in Red Hill.



Peakie allows me to take a photo of her "squish test",



Not the best VS I've ever had.. not the worst.

Get thee down to the Flash Duck and give one a go...

Thursday 22 November 2007

Proud Peacock.


Last night, fellow blogger and all round funny guy, Thanh, from "I Eat Therefore I Am", popped up to Proud Peacock Vietnamese restaurant in GW for a quick bite.

I told Thanh that I new a lovely young SINGLE Vietnamese girl who ran a resto, so what male, single foodie WOULDN"T jump at the chance to hang out with Furry and I, and also check out some luuuurve ack-shawn???




Proud Peacock

Ph: (03) 9560 6661; shop 6, 53 Kingsway, Glen Waverley 3150

I freely admit I am an inveterate match maker. It's the wog in me. Along with telling Thank he was **insert elderly Greek lady accent** "too skinny", I also told him he was about to meet the mother of his children.

Well, imagine Thanh's suprise when we walked into the resto, and this delightful young woman walks up to him and says "Hi!! apparently we're getting married and making pg and Furry lots of babies".

Ummmm, yeah.. we'd kinda... maybe mentioned Thanh to her. Maybe.

Ahem.

To the food.

I apologise for the quality of the photo's, but Thanh and I had shared a bottle of THIS before we headed up to the resto, so most of the photos were a bit dodgy.

The Proud Peacock (the restaurant, not Thanh!), is a little hole in the wall, in The Kingsway, GW. Formica tables, concrete floor, a few posters of Vietnam on the walls. In short, MY kinda place. The food is hearty, simple, made by Mum and Dad out the back, and the portions are huge. And it's cheap. Under $50 for the three of us.

We ordered a plate of bai cuon, spring rolls and goi cuon, and everything came out with a huge plate of various dipping sauces and condiments.



goi cuon (shrimp rolls)



dipping sauces:



My pho:



I didn't manage to get a decent shot of what Furry and Thanh ordered, as hunger overrode my command not to eat until I'd taken a pic, and all the photos were blurry action shots.

A complimentary fruit platter, complete with warm gulag jalmuns completed our meal!




Thanh won't be blogging much over the next few months, as he'll be off awoo-ing and making Auntie PG and Uncle Furry lots of beautiful Vietnamese/Chinese babies to play with.

I'm wearing purple to the wedding.

What about you??

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Sticking it to Golden Arches!


Incase you don't know about this, here is the background story. Ian MacDonald runs The Flash Duck. Named so, because, well... he likes ducks, and because McDisgusting Corp. made his change it. Can't have people thinking a resto, with green and black as the predominant colour theme, and a menu that includes vegan burgers and haggis burgers might be confoozed with the tasteless boiled pap that extrudes from the servery windows of Golden Arches, now, can we??

More info on his David and Goliath battle is here at Ian's Blog.

I eat there because a) I'm an old hippie, and any time I can stick it to the Corporation, I take it and also b) because the food is bloody good. The produce is sourced locally and the burgers are hand ground from local scotch fillet.

See??



We went down to FD, with our friends, Peakie and Dr Trevorkian, and had a most pleasant arvo.

A bottle of wine:



I ordered the Thai chicken burger. T'was fragrant with Vietnamese mint, coriander and sweet chili sauce.



Furry and Dr Trevorkian ordered the cleverly named UNOHOOZ burger.. basically, one with the lot.

Peakie, after much deliberation, ordered the haggis burger.



Now. Peakie is a haggis eating FOOL!! This woman knows her haggis. After the Great Gleneagles Haggis and Whisky Creme debacle of 2001, I was not keen to sample it, but after much coaxing and nurturing, I did.

Can't se the point, myself, but Peakie was coo-ing over it. I'll take her word that it was great.



Apparently Ian sources his haggis from a local Scottish butcher in Dandenong,

Check out the resto's site: The Flash Duck. and go there. And eat REAL hamburgers.


Oh, and another reason to go.... the support these guys:

Land Of Smiles Foundation.

Monday 19 November 2007

A Seasonal guide to the Mornington Peninsula.


JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Apples
Asparagus
Avocadoes
Blueberries
Bread, Biscuits & Cakes
Cherries
Chocolates & Cheese
Eggs
Figs
Fish & Seafood
Freeze Dried
Hampers
Honey
Jams, Chutneys, Vinegars & Spices
Juices
Meat & Smallgoods
Muesli
Olives, Oil, etc
Pasta
Peaches
Pears & Nashi fruit
Peas & Beans
Plums
Potatoes
Pumpkins
Quinces
Raspberries
Salad Greens & Herbs
Strawberries
Tea & Coffee
Tomatoes
Wholesale
Wine, Beer, Cider & Liqueurs