What exactly is Lok lok? To me, lok lok is like steamboat – except your ingredients are all on skewers and your soup base is really just boiling water.

And that’s exactly what you see in the above picture. (Photo credit to Desmond). A table with a cooker fitted in the middle, a pot of boiling water and plates and plates of fresh ingredients on skewers surrounding the cooker.

On this particular day, we were having Lok lok at the evening hawker center at Pulau Tikus Market in Penang. This was a new experience for me as lok lok has always been a food truck affair for me. And one that mum would never let us try because of its questionable hygiene.

It’s not hard to see why it’d be unhygienic. While communal eating is not a foreign concept to us Asians, lok lok is a pot of water where every Tom, Dick and Harry will dip their skewer into. You don’t know who you’d be sharing that pot of boiling water with! Still, we like to argue that the boiling water will kill anything (not true) and that as long as people don’t double dip it’s okay? Maybe!

The eating process is easy, you pick a skewer with the ingredient you want and you pop it into the cooker. You let it cook for however long you’d like and then retrieve it. Dunk it in your choice of sauce (mine was Tom Yum) and chow down! Other sauces available were Satay and Sweet Chilli I think. Or I might be making that last one up. I don’t know, I stuck to my Tom Yum.

With a group of friends, this can be a really jovial affair. I love steamboats, and I love lok lok. Hell, I just love communal eating. There is nothing more heartwarming than sitting around a table with your friends, eating and laughing away.

Lok lok at Pulau Tikus Market. Hit it.

Penang is known as the food heaven of Malaysia. If you want to eat really good food, most will point you to Penang. I remember when we visited Penang when I was Primary four, our family friend said this: “Eat as much as you can, but don’t forget to bring tummy medicine.”

Penang is a little bit odd compared to the rest of Malaysia. The roads seem tinier, the drivers a whole lot more aggressive and the same food is called different names. Take for example the ever popular Har Mee (Prawn noodles). The rest of Malaysia calls it Har Mee, but Penang insists on calling it Hokkien Mee. But for the rest of Malaysia, Hokkien Mee is thick noodles stir-fried in dark soy sauce! Oh, that. Penang calls that Hokkien Char. What.

Confusing names aside, Penang has some pretty unique food. I wish Johor could say the same. What exactly is there in Johor? Not very much. Feh.

On this particular day, I was out with the lovely Glow. She had driven into Penang to meetup with me! I was excited! Oh and of course, the boy came along too. It was a bit of a funny feeling really, because the boy had just became the boy once again the night before, and when Glow asked me “Is he your boyfriend?”, saying yes felt so odd. So. Very. Odd.

Glow is incredibly sweet, did I mention? She came by to pick me and the boy up and whisked us away to start our eating and shopping tour of Penang! The first place we went to was the ever famous Penang Road Cendol.

Oh hey, look! Even PCK has been. This cendol store is hard to miss. It is in a small alley but there is no mistaking the queue. Be mindful though, it’s not exactly the world’s best queue system and you will find that if you are overly polite, you will never get that bowl of cendol. Right opposite is another cendol stall. They aren’t very friendly, and if you stick around their stall with a bowl of cendol from their competitor, they will yell at you.

I have to admit. This cendol was sublime. Unlike many other cendols I have come across, this one was just the right amount of sweetness (from palm sugar) and had a really generous helping of the green jelly and red bean for extra texture. And in that hot and humid weather, the icy cold dessert went down a treat.

Now, much like other Malaysian dessert, cendol doesn’t look like much. In fact, to some, the above photo might be down right unappetizing. But if you are ever in Malaysia, you need to try cendol. If you are ever in Penang, you need to try this cendol. So good.

We also had Chee Cheong Fun (above) and Assam Laksa (below). Or in Penang, Assam Laksa is just known as Laksa. Ah, stupidly confusing! Especially because then they also like to separate it into curry laksa and lemak laksa… As for that Chee Cheong Fun, it was just not good. Tasted incredibly fishy and I wasn’t a fan. Give me back the Chee Cheong Fun we get in SG please!

**If you are confused as to what these dishes are, I have linked their wiki pages**

After that we went shopping, in which Glow made me spend monies by pointing out a really pretty lacy scarf that had music notes all over it. Doom.

All too soon, the day was over and Glow had to go home. Sadface. We did take some photos in the car though!! These were taken with the Popbooth app, so the quality’s not that great but it does take some pretty funny photos. Enjoy!

Having a relaxing lunch at a winery has to be right near the top of my list of favourite things to do. I love it so. There’s just something so charming, so luxurious and so beautiful about lunch at a winery. So every chance I get (which is everytime I go wine touring) I try to book lunch at a winery.

Except this time, I didn’t quite get a booking at a place that had been recommended. Damn. That’s how we ended up at The Kitchen Door in Mclaren Vale.

But that’s alright. As long as it’s a winery, surrounded by natural beauty, and has wine… then well. I’m alright with it! Check, check, check, and we settled in for lunch at The Kitchen Door.

We arrived somewhat early for our reservation so whiled away the time at the cellar door tasting wines. Being the driver, I had to be mindful of how much I actually drank. 4 tasting samples = 1 standard drink. And it’s very, very easy to hit the 3 standard drinks mark. So you gotta be careful. And careful I was. Knowing full well that I’d be drinking a full glass at lunch, I skipped pretty much all of the tastings except for the riesling. Good choice. That’s what I ended up with for lunch!

The Kitchen Door had a tasting platter going on. However, it was using the format of all or nothing. Which means, either your whole table had the tasting platter, or none of you did as it was designed to share. Interesting, however the table wasn’t quite sure they wanted the tasting platter. Which, turned out to be really funny because after we were done ordering for all of us, we had all picked different dishes from the tasting platter and if you put it together….

At any rate, here’s what we had!

The ratatouille tart – $15.

I don’t know if I would actually call it a tart. An open tart, maybe? At any rate, this was tasty but not very filling. At that size, you don’t exactly expect it to be either. Simple, easy eating, light fluffy pastry. Yum. A great starter to any meal, I’d be tempted to do this myself at home too! I reckon they’d make great finger food. I think it was actually one of the better dishes of the day, really.

Chicken and Crab Salad

Very beautiful dish, but sadly, I couldn’t taste the crab. All chicken. I wasn’t entirely taken by it too which was a pity as the description was really quite gorgeous. Blue Swimmer Crab, shocked K.I. Abalone, flat beans, puffed black rice, star anise and basil. Doesn’t that sound gorgeous? But it really didn’t taste quite as gorgeous. It was a bit dry, bit bland though one of my travelling companions, E, really seem to like the puffed black rice.

Pan Fried Crumbed Pork Fillet

We then moved onto the pork which won main of the day, in my books. Beautifully moist, it was quite the treat. Not much crackling available, but I am quite the crackling fiend.

Silver Whiting

I didn’t really like this. It was bland, the flavours didn’t mesh and it was just… not that great. It wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t memorable either. Something about the flavours just didn’t work out. I don’t quite know what, but it just didn’t work. Alas.

The mains and starters had been shared between 3 of us, so we still had quite a bit of room for dessert. I’m always keen to get desserts when I’m out at the wineries, so after a quick look over the dessert menu, we decided to get the dessert platter. I actually can’t remember what’s on it other than the chocolate souffle as it was the one thing that was causing a huge wait on the platter. See, they make this to order, which is fine but I wasn’t quite aware of how long a souffle takes to make… so we were waiting for quite a bit. Lesson learnt!

As for the desserts, they were nice. They weren’t wow. And that souffle, sorry to say, wasn’t quite worth waiting for.

All in all, go for the mains, don’t get fish and desserts and drink heaps of wine! You’ll be rocking. Oh and I’ve heard they serve a killer lamb. I would quite like to try that!

I have long known of the National Geographic Magazine, but I’ll be the first to admit. I didn’t know Australia had a “Australian Geographic Magazine“. Whoops.

I know this advertorial doesn’t really relate with what we normally do around here, which is Eat. But it does have to do with what we do occasionally around here, which is travel. And while I’ve been reading about bloggers getting flak for advertorials that do not seem to fit into the scope of their blog, here’s my stance on it. My blog, I’ll blog what I want on it. And if I think it’s worth sharing, then it’s worth sharing. And after reading through the Australian Geographic, I assure you, it’s worth sharing.

Why is it worth sharing? Because I love to travel, and more importantly, I love to travel within Australia. Too many Australians just up and head overseas, but I have been taught since young that you travel around your own country first and when you are done with that, then you head overseas. (Of course, this works better if your country isn’t the size of USA, as that will take you a lifetime…) And the Australian Geographic really helped with widening my knowledge of Australia.

Take for example, in the latest issue, they discussed about the Great White Shark and the shark nursery found off Port Stephens in NSW. Now, this doesn’t exactly encourage me to go diving into the waters since I can’t swim and I don’t particularly want to say hi to sharks, but it does give me a fascinating insight to the Great White Shark populations. And as one who used to eat Shark Fins, it’s definitely an eye opener. I say used to because I haven’t had it in ages, not being home for Chinese new year, but as years go by, our version of the ever popular shark fin soup doesn’t seem to contain shark fin anyways.

There are other articles in here that perked my interest as well. The tales of an adventure couple who faced hypothermia and isolation, the beautiful photos of Australia’s raw natural beauty, and even the history of the Melbourne Races (of which it greatly distresses me that I don’t get a holiday for anymore). I didn’t think I’d be this taken by this magazine but I was. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by my love for this Science Magazine. After all, I’m a huge fan of National Geographic!

And you know what’s the best thing of all? This magazine shows you tour routes, and advertises for travel agencies. While I’m not a fan of travel agencies, I do like to browse through their ads to have an idea as to where to go to next. I’m already planning my next holiday!

Are you looking for the perfect Christmas present? Give your loved ones a magazine subscription this year and you can win a tropical escape to Hawaii with Magshop’s Christmas competition. Treat your family and friends to a magazine subscription today – it’s the gift that keeps on giving all year round!

You didn’t think I’d be talking about beauty products only, right? Food. Food is for the soul, and if there’s anything that makes me feel prettier than anything else, it is the inhaling of food. But don’t ask me how I feel after the food has been digested and changed into Fat. That’s a totally different story.

If there’s a dessert missing from your Christmas table, it would be the decadent ice creams from Maggie Beer. Earlier this year I visited Maggie Beer’s Farm shop. Unfortunately with anything that has been built up too high, my expectations of the place was met with a harsh fall. The saving grace was the fact that the farm shop stocked all the flavours available in Maggie Beer’s popular ice cream range.

If you love Jaffa, grab the Chocolate and Orange. The housemate insists that the Vanilla and Elderflower tastes like Bandung while I really quite liked Strawberries and Cream.

Yum. Hit them now.

We used to have Kaiten Sushi in Melbourne. Well, we still do, but the one I usually go to is no longer under the same chef and is no longer good. There’s another one on little collins but I’m yet to try it. There’s the one in Crown, but it really isn’t nice.

What I mean to say is that I love Kaiten Sushi. I love the ones in Japan where almost everything is 100 yen, hot water comes out of a tap in the wall and you ring a bell and tap a digital menu on the wall for service. I love the variety of sushi and well.. I love everything about Kaiten sushi.

So when I heard that there were Sushi Train outlets in Adelaide, I was keen to go. In fact, I’ve gone back at least 4 times now. It’s convenient, I swear!

I’ve been to two outlets so far, one at Central Market and one at Welland Plaza. I rather like the Central Market outlet more because it is slightly nearer to the heart of the city and also because it is cozier. It’s a lot smaller and it can get quite squishy but I love the intimate feeling. (Ironically, photos are of the Welland Plaza as I didn’t bring my camera on my other trips to the central market outlet.)

Sushi is made on the spot, and the staff seems to be mostly made up of Japanese. Which is rather reassuring considering the number of kaiten sushi outlets I’ve been to that have been run by cantonese speaking staff members. Nothing against them, but I do rather like my cuisines to be authentic down to the staff. I know, I’m picky.

In terms of quality, it’s so-so. It’s not blow your mind good, but it’s not bad either. I’m happy enough to trot down every so often to watch the sushi plates play merry go round and to eat up all the tamago sushi on offer. Once, I watched a staff clean salmon fillets for a good half hour. I do love spending time here. It reminds me of my time in Japan, oddly enough. And that comforts me.

Would I go back? Hell yes. I love kaiten sushi so much! As long as it’s not atrocious like Oriental Express in Crown, I’ll be there.

For many months after Steer Bar and Grill opened its doors to public, I kept telling myself that I should go check it out. Many food bloggers went and blogged about it but I still couldn’t find the time to go. Then they changed their menu and became a new york steakhouse. And suddenly I found time. Funny what steak can do.

I invited Violet & Jimmy and Celina & Toby to dinner. All of us Steer virgins, so we didn’t really know what to expect. Well, I kinda did. I was expecting it to be good.

I’ll tell you truthfully right now that the first meal wasn’t actually all that great. But my 2nd and 3rd meal at Steer were superb. So it really just goes to show that you really should give a restaurant another chance if you are able to. I try to anyways.

Before I really get into it, I just have to say that the extra virgin olive oil Steer uses for their breads is just so delightful. I love the evoo they use. Absolutely gorgeous.

I don’t have too many photos of the steaks of Steer. I really don’t think you need that many anyways. All you really need to know is that the experience at Steer is worth every penny and then some. Before you order, you are first introduced to the current offerings on a big wood slab covered with different meat cuts. You get to see the marbling of the meats first hand, and even ask your waiter questions if you are not that familiar with the different meats. Me, I love porterhouse, scotch, and sometimes eye fillets. While Kev on the other hand is a loyal eye fillet fan.

Steaks are best enjoyed at medium rare. At least, I think so. I don’t really get how people eat a well done steak. It rather taste like rubber.

On my 2nd visit to Steer, I had some absolutely gorgeous wagyu from Darlings Down. It was melt in your mouth, cooked to perfection and absolutely drop dead gorgeous. I was sent to heaven, again, and again, and again. I think steaks are really such sensitive things, get a good chef and you will do justice to the beautiful cut of meat and do a ripper of a job cooking it. Have the chef even the tiniest bit distracted and the steak’s gone. And trust me, during my stay out in the country, I’ve eaten my fair share of really awfully cooked steak.

Suffice to say, I adore the steaks at Steer. They might not be quite the same standard of swoon-worthiness every time due to the different cuts of meat and seasons, but the quality is always good and it will always be incredibly tasty.

The sides at Steer are good too. My favourite is the buttermilk mash which is so good, I want to lick the bowl. But really, all the sides I’ve tried so far have been good. Here’s some of them:

During one of my visits, I enjoyed myself so much, I stayed for tea and dessert. I hardly ever do this because I’m not much of a sweets lover, but I wanted to stay at Steer for as long as I could.

Unfortunately, I don’t actually remember what we had. It was a bombe alaska of some form and was very pretty though. But if I remember correctly, I didn’t like it as much. Pity, but it didn’t really ruin my meal as those steaks I had just before had been enough to get me floating on cloud 9.

Steer is a romance I hope will keep on blossoming. I dream of the steaks here and I can’t wait to be back again. Luckily for me, I head back to Melbourne every so often and Kev is always a willing dinner partner when it comes to Steer. I’ll be back!

Corner Stud Rd & Burwood Hwy
Wantirna South, VIC 3152
Secret Recipe Online

I don’t normally like going to restaurants that are ‘asian inspired’. Call me a snob, but I try to avoid them as they generally disappoint. But a dear friend, Siera, insisted on paying Secret Recipe a visit, and who am I to say no? After all, her obsession with Secret Recipe was my fault as well.

I think sometimes, the best way to go to a restaurant is to go without any sort of expectations. Because that’s what I did. I went without any expectations of grandeur, instead I thought I was going to be horribly disappointed but instead I found myself loving the food!

I will admit, the Char Kuey Teow wasn’t authentic. But authenticity is a slippery slope and the more I go through the mind-boggling number of malaysian/singaporean cuisine restaurants, the less inclined I am to talk about authenticity. So let’s skip right past that. Because despite the lack of wok hei, it was incredibly tasty. We were sharing two mains between three of us to have room for cakes so it took an absurd amount of willpower not to just finished the lot. Save to say, I wish we had more. Ah damn.

Looks can be deceiving. When this appeared on the table, I shook my head and thought “here comes the disaster”. It does look quite unappetizing, doesn’t it? What is this dish? It’s pumpkin and almond agnolotti with sage and shallot cream sauce. And of course, I had to eat my words just as much as I had to stop myself from licking the plate. Was this just a fluke or was Secret Recipe actually dishing out decent meals?

The mains were made really quick work of, especially between the three of us. We eagerly pushed the plates away and started contemplating dessert. After all, Secret Recipe is known for their cakes. That’s their hero product.

Here are the cakes we got:

I wouldn’t say that this is where the meal went downhill, but I will say that it’s funny how things worked out. I didn’t expect anything good from the mains and I was greeted with incredibly tasty dishes. I was expecting the cakes to be amazing, and they were so-so. Full of fatty, fatty cream and not much else. Ew.

I won’t even bother naming the cakes because I don’t think any of it was memorable. But that’s alright, because I’d still go back to Secret Recipe. Those mains!

Here’s another reason why I will go back. I left my brand new camera there, on the table. I went three days without realising it was gone. When I did, I couldn’t even begin to think where I had left it. In a fit of desperation I called up Secret Recipe and what do you know, my camera was there. Untouched, safe, and perfectly taken care of. I went to retrieve it immediately but I was so incredibly impressed by the service for having taken care of the camera and keeping it safe. Thank you.

I don’t even remember how long ago this visit to Eros Kafe was. I know it was with one of the #ABBM meetups, and we took over the center of the restaurant and had a jolly good ol’ time there. Ah memories.

Eros Kafe is a greek restaurant located in the middle of Adelaide CBD. It’s not terribly big and they do have their big sister right next door which is more of a fancy dining place, I’m told. I’m not terribly well versed with Greek food, but I know what tasty food is. At any rate, the day’s visit was as much for the food as it was to gather with my #ABBM girls and make merry.

I have to say though that while the Open style yiros with marinated prime lamb fillets, chopped and served with salad, tzatziki, pitta and rough cut steakchips didn’t look all that appetizing on the plate, it smelt amazing and it tasted amazing too! Explosion of flavours on the palate, beautifully tender soft lamb cooked to perfection… I really couldn’t fault this. So yummy!

This was Michelle’s meal, I forgot to ask how it was though I distinctly remember her whipping out some more seasoning onto it so it might have been under-seasoned. Hmm.

Would I go back to Eros? Yes. While the service wasn’t the quickest, they did an amazing job at putting up a smile as we girls giggled and laughed our way through 3 hours and when I bumped into a table and broke a plate (I have a big bum, so sue me) they didn’t even blink nor did that smile waver.

For you Adelaide folks, have you tried Eros Kafe? If you are not native to Adelaide, why not hire a car and check it out?

We started the weekend by having breakfast at Adelaide Central Market. I had read reviews recommending either Zuma Caffe or Lucia’s. After taking a peek into both, we settled with Zuma Cafe.

We both ordered the day’s special which was poached eggs on a hearty sugo. K had the meaty version with chorizos and bacon while I plowed my way through the vegetarian version which was a somewhat less exciting version with chickpeas and the like. I say less exciting because when you taste both, you can immediately distinguish who had the better dish of the meal. The chorizo really added an extra punch and the tasty bacon was absolutely beautiful. Still, the chickpea version was hearty and definitely worth a try. Can’t say the same for their ice mocha unfortunately!

Our next meal came in the form of Burger Theory. Food trucks excite me. I love the food trucks back in Malaysia and the music playing of the bread truck that comes through my neighborhood in the evenings is usually a welcomed sound. Unfortunately food trucks seem to be a bit of a rarity in this country, though they are popping up around the place. Burger Theory is one of them. You can smell the amazing wafting smell of burgers way before you can see the truck! Walking up to it was pure torture and bliss in the same swift stroke and I was practically bouncing with eagerness by the time we got to the truck.

The burger itself had the most amazing bun. The toasted bread was to die for and if all bread was made like that, I would happily survive on just that for the rest of my life.

For dinner, we then visited Matsuri. I’ve long wanted to visit Matsuri as friends have told me that it was a delight. Matsuri is divided into western and traditional seating. Western meaning tables with chairs, traditional meaning sitting on the floor. Kneeling, if you prefer but Matsuri did have the holes in the floor for you to hang your feet into if kneeling wasn’t your cup of tea.

I delighted in the freshness of the sashimi and swooned over the garlic chicken. I did however moan the tiny portions of the sashimi and came to the conclusion that Suzuran is still the king of sushi and sashimi. Still, definitely worth a visit and I’d come again!

Eggless then followed for dessert, though this month’s tasting platter wasn’t quite up to my likings. I did like the panna cotta though, but it lacked a wow factor. Nonetheless, Eggless is always worth a revisit every single month and I have wrote about it before so feel free to read that review.

I think I’ll stop here for today. I’ll come back to tell you about our antics the next day soon! What did you get up to on your weekend? A friend of mine went for a holiday in turkey, the lucky duck.