Matcha Cupcakes

Mmmm cupcakes, easy to make and infinite flavour possibilities.  These were really delicious, the cake itself was very fluffy and delicate.

I crushed some green tea leaves and put it into the batter as well for extra tea flavour.  And a note, green tea glaze is not very appetising...think runny snot or Shrek in a blender accident.  So you should make the frosting instead.  Or eat it unfrosted...but where's the fun in that?  The recipe can be found at one of my favourite sites, Foodbeam.

Westfield + Food

An overhead shot from I don't know what level, seriously it was a labyrinth.

A while back I walked around the soon-to-be-completed-redevelopment Westfield shopping centre.  It looks really, really nice inside, very sleek and very sophisticated.  Not like the Westfield shopping centres in the 'burbs.  They are almost done from what I can tell, there are still some shops still to be opened like Zara (excitement plus!) and other clothes stores.  I wasn't really there for the clothes or for the shopping, I was there for the food.  The seating in the foodcourt was plush, there were padded seats and they didn't try and cram as many seats in as possible.

After hearing positive things about Charlie & Co burgers and the chips, I though I would give them a try.  From memory (it was months ago), I had a Federation Burger and the Truffle and Parmesan Chips.   The chips were good, crispy and very flavoursome.  I don't know what real truffles taste like, being a poor student and all but whatever that taste in the chips was, it was addictive.  To me, the flavour was very fleeting, it felt like as soon as you tried to think about what the taste was, it disappeared.  Then you'd eat another chip to recapture the flavour.  And on it goes.  :)  Oh and also the servings for the chips were very generous.  Definitely one to share.

The burger was OK...the beef patty had an overpowering garlic taste and masked the other flavours of the burger.  And for some reason they had put the tomato and lettuce on the bottom so the bottom bun was soggy.  On a positive note, it was a very thick beef patty, the egg was fried nicely and the bread was soft (a must for burgers in my opinion).  Charlie & Co is definitely worth a visit, even if you just order the chips.

I also bought some macarons to take home at the dessert/chocolate/patisserie/gelato place in the foodcourt (I have forgotten the name of it).  The brown one is raisin toast, the two black ones are black sesame and the pink is cardamom and raspberry (I think).  They were a bit smooshed from being unboxed (considering I paid $3.50 for each of them, I thought they would have been boxed).  I ate the raisin toast one and it was good...you could taste the cinnamon, the raisins, and it didn't just taste like sugar.  The others I shared.  :)  The verdict: yum.  But for $3.50, I think it is overpriced. 

They also had a very impressive display of chocolate, gelato and pastries and French type of cakes.  Prices were high, around $7 or so for the cakes.  For that price I would rather go and visit La Renaissance, which is next on my places-to-visit list.

The bottom of the escalators were shiny!  So when you looked up you could see your reflection, albeit a very warped and distorted one.  :)

Note to self: high speed film, no flash, and low light results in very grainy photos.

Momofuku's CRACK PIE

Well, it's taken me about 4 months to finish my roll of film, develop and scan the prints into my laptop.  I know, it is slack.  So this crack pie has been and gone for many weeks, possibly many months.  

This recipe was bookmarked in my brain for the longest time after reading about it here, here and here.   And you know, the whole food blogging community was absolutely HYPING about it so I had to try it.  Well after reading all these posts about how ah-maze-ing it was, I had very high expectation of this pie.  My opinion?  It was...OK.  I was expecting some kind of food/sensory experience that would leave me wordless, blow my mind, transcend this dimension of space and time.  

But, no.  It's sweet and deceivingly rich, it tastes good when it's straight from the fridge but turns to goo quite quickly if it isn't eaten immediately.  

Also, there was oil aplenty dripping into the bottom of the oven as this was baking.  It's definitely a recipe you should try but for me, it's probably a pie I won't be making again. 

Or maybe  I need to go to NYC to eat it from Momofuku Milk Bar itself.

You can have a crack at the recipe here.