Monthly Archives: April 2012

I’m Back – Banoffee Pie

Reviews April 28, 2012 Comments: 39

Big hello to my all Readers :D I’m back! I’m so sorry for not blogging lately! It’s been absolutely crazy here… I’m not sure if you know through my Twitter/Instagram, but Mr Bao and I have officially ‘moved in’ together :) We’ve practically lived with each other for some time now but this time it’s ‘our’ place, not his, not mine but ours YAY! The best thing is it’s a brand new apartment with a new kitchen, new oven and a new dishwasher :)

Even though I’ve been so excited about the move, it’s also been very stressful :( with packing everything, unpacking it all and settling in. It’s worse when I’ve also had a few arguments with my parents…so it’s just been a down right crazy and rough week… But baking and blogging always relaxes me and I would also like to say ‘thank you’ to Win Win, Selina, Brian, Andy, Shan Shan , Michelle, Julie, Maya, Rita, Ros and everyone else for the lovely and kind messages on Twitter and Instagram ~ not to worry! I’m finally back, I’ll try my very best to get back on track with blogging ASAP! Thank you for being so patient with me :D

I wanted to participate in this months AlphaBakes but simply had no time, but then Ros the host for was so kind and extended the date :D It was a relatively easy letter ‘B’, I had so many ideas but they all seemed to revolved around ‘bananas’ LOL I was initially going to make ‘banana bread’, but then was sure there will be more entries…so then I remembered the Banoffee Pie I had at Main St Deli in HK? I was inspired and decided to make a ‘banoffee pie’ :D it’s my first time and it’s actually relatively easy to make hehe ~

Banofee Pie

Recipe: Banoffee Pie 
Adapted from Carnation Company 
Yields: 3 mini pies

Ingredients 
Base
50 grams, butter, melted
125 grams, digestive biscuits

Filling
50 grams, butter
50 grams, dark brown soft sugar
1/2 (198grams) condensed milk

Topping 
2 – 3 Bananas
150 ml thickened cream, lightly whipped
Cocoa powder to serve

Method
1) To make the base, process digestive biscuits in a food processor or using a rolling pin. Stir in the melted butter. Press the mixture into the base, making sure it covers the side of the tin. Chill the base while you make the filling.
2) To make the caramel filling, place the butter and sugar into a non-stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Add condense milk and bring gently to boil, stirring continuously.
3) When the caramel has started to boil (Be careful it’s very hot!), remove from the heat and pour over the biscuit base. Cool, and then leave to chill for 1 hour, until firm.

Love mini pies and tarts ~

4) When ready to serve, remove the pie from the tin. Slice bananas, place it over the caramel layer, spoon over softly whipped cream and finish off with a sprinkle of cocoa powder (optional)

Ready to serve

More or less bananas depending on personal preference :)

The finished product ~ An easy, sweet and yummy no bake banoffee pie.

I have to admit though I only really like the ‘caramel’ and ‘banana’ layer of a banoffee pie ~ I don’t mind the whipped cream but can do without it, then and again it wouldn’t be a banoffee pie without the ‘whipped cream’ :)

This was the first time I made banoffee pie and even though I’m quite happy with it hehe even Mr Bao ate half as you can see ~ It wasn’t the best ‘caramel’ layer, I wanted to try making my own dulce de luche by boiling condensed milk. However, I didn’t have enough so decided to use this ‘quick’ method by adding butter and sugar hehe but to make this even better, I’m gonna try this again!

I hope you like this recipe too and will give this a go sometime soon :)

Rich & Thick – Chobani Yoghurt

Australia, Reviews April 20, 2012 Comments: 52

Do you say ‘YO-ghurt’ or ‘YOG-hurt’? :) I remember there was a lecturer back at Uni who was English, he would also use ‘Ski Yoghurt’ as an example to explain a marketing theory, and the whole class would laugh because we all say ‘Yo-ghurt’ but he’ll argue and correct us saying it’s ‘YOG-hurt’ hahaha no matter how you say it, I’m CRAZY about yoghurt! The one thing that we always run out in the house is ‘yoghurt’! I down at least a tub or two a day ~ Mr Bao sometimes gets annoyed that he always needs to buy ‘more’ yoghurt :P really should make my own…especially since Lorraine (Not Quite Nigella) and Kim (Fruit Salad Mixed Veg) have both written great posts about making your own yoghurt ~

Anyway, that’s why I was SUPER excited when Chobani asked me if I’d like to sample their yoghurt ~ I have read and heard of some amazing things about their yoghurt and really wanted to try so it was perfect timing :D

For those who don’t know, Chobani is one of America’s most famous yoghurt and have recently entered the Australian market :) It was founded by Hamdi Ulukaya in 2005, who was born and raised in Turkey, he decided to make his own yoghurt because he didn’t like the yoghurt sold in the supermarkets. I was really surprised when I read that, because I always thought American’s made pretty good yoghurt hehe ~ but then after trying Chobani…I now understand why Hamdi decided to make his own! It’s so much better ~ Thicker, Creamier and Richer hehe

I was sent all 7 Flavours – Mango, Peach, Strawberry, Blueberry, Pineapple, Passionfruit and the Plain :) Unfortunately, by the time I took photos for this post…Mr Bao had already eaten the  ’Mango and Passionfruit’ flavour -____-

Extremely thick and yummy :)

Before I go through the flavours with you, just wanted to show you exactly how ‘THICK’ Chobani’s yoghurt is ~ it was so thick that it wouldn’t even move when I shook it furiously, I dunno why I did that though lol

I stuck a spoon in and it didn’t ‘move’ at all! I don’t think I’ve ever had a thicker yoghurt ~ I usually just eat ‘Jalna‘ yoghurt and thought that was already pretty thick :)

Remember to mix it ~

I’m sure you guys are smarter than me hahaha I remember the first time I opened the tub of yoghurt, I was a little lost, why was it so ‘white’ and ‘where’s my fruit?’. Mr Bao rolled his eyes and said ‘It’s probably at the bottom,just mix the damn thing’ so I did and there it was ~ The lovely fruit puree YAY! The one in the picture is the pineapple flavour ~ I don’t see many yoghurts that have a pineapple flavour so I was pretty surprised hehe I liked the pineapple flavour and get to have both tubs because Mr Bao can’t eat pineapples :P

My favourite Blueberry ~

My favourite would have to be the BLUEBERRY flavour :D It had the thick consistency, but I just think it was the best combination with the blueberries, wasn’t too tart or too sweet, just right ~

Strawberry flavour ~

Mr Bao loves strawberry flavoured yoghurts and desserts ~ he liked this strawberry yoghurt, but thought the strawberry puree tasted it a little artificial and didn’t really provide him with the fresh strawberry flavour he was looking for. I had the same feeling, and thought the strawberry puree was a little bland ~

Plain Yoghurt

I made the mistake of having this ‘plain yoghurt’ with some cereal :( because it was quite tart and a little to pungent to have on its own, but I could definitely see myself cooking and making desserts with me :) However, it might be a little thick if you’re trying to make a sauce so you may need to stir it or thin it down with some oil ~

Peach Flavour ~

Quite nice :) but I’m not really a peachy person so this wasn’t my favourite ~

I didn’t take a photo of the mango but that would be my second favourite, because I love mango flavoured yoghurt and it didn’t taste like ‘artificial flavouring’. I also tried the passionfruit, but didn’t like that because it was too sour, trying to be healthy, I don’t like adding extra ‘sugar’ to my yoghurt, but I had to add a little bit of honey to finish this tub of yoghurt.

Overall, I really liked Chobani’s yoghurt and will continue buying it :) I really love their rich and thick texture, the only problem is they’re only selling their yoghurt at Woolworths right now and I usually shop at Coles…damn lol but doesn’t matter, for good yoghurt I’m happy to go to Woolworths :D

Thank you once again Chobani for giving me the chance to sample your wonderful yoghurt ~

Daisy@Nevertoosweet was not paid to write this review and was based on my own personal taste, preference and experience.

Thanks Kirk – Chocolate Orange Tart

Recipes April 17, 2012 Comments: 51

Dear Loveliest Readers :) have you ever wanted to ‘make’ friends with someone who works in a specific industry or occupation? I do LOL I have always wanted to be friends with a PASTRY CHEF ~ That’s right someone who works professionally with pastries and sweet goodies everyday! But unfortunately… I never found this ‘special’ friend…until one day last year hahaha when Ellen a friend from Uni told me she was friends with a person who’s a pastry chef at a prestigious restaurant in Melbourne! I was SUPER DUPER excited about meeting this mysterious person hahaha after a couple of months of nagging…I was finally introduced to Kirk!

Welcome Kirk ~

Hahaha I hope Mr Bao wont be jealous when he reads this, but Kirk and I basically had ‘fireworks’ going from the moment we met :D it didn’t even feel like we just met LOL we spent hours talking to each other about pastries, our favourite chefs, TV shows and everything about food ~ and since meeting Kirk, he’s basically been MENTORING me! Teaching me new techniques and perfecting my old ones ~ Mr Bao and I have been so blessed! He’s always making us goodies – savoury for him and desserts for me YAY!

Now I am so happy and proud to say ‘I have a friend who’s a pastry chef’ hahaha and I love that I can share Kirk’s secret recipes with everyone ~ The other day, we had dinner with Kirk and he said to me, ‘I have a chocolate tart shell for you, go wild with your imagination’.

Kirk's Chocolate Tart Case ~

I was so so so happy :) because I’ve never really managed to make my own ‘pastry case’ so it was perfect, that Kirk had done the ‘hard work’ for me hehe I’ve been missing Win Win and my nephew quite a bit :( so I was inspired to make a Chocolate Orange Tart because that’s one of Win Win’s favourite flavours~

My First Chocolate Orange Tart~

I’m so proud of myself ~ because this is the first Chocolate Orange Tart I’ve ever made hehe and I made an effort to take photos when I was making it, to make it easier for my lovely Readers to follow the directions :) I’m sorry that my photos aren’t that great… I’m still working on it :)

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Tart
Adapted from Good Food Channel 

Ingredients
Chocolate Orange Filling
350 ml Thickened Cream
300 grams Dark Chocolate, 70% cocoa, chopped into small pieces
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
2 tbsps Orange Liqueur or Orange Juice or Orange Essence
Orange zest for decoration

Pastry Shell:
1 Store Bought Pastry Tart Shell
Or
1 Homemade Pastry Tart Shell
Sorry Everyone! Kirk is on holidays right now so I don’t have the recipe for the tart shell yet, but will share with everyone once I get a hold of him :)

Method
1) Prepare the store bought pastry case or make your own using a reliable recipe :)
2) Heat the thickned cream in a small saucepan with most of the orange zest. Bring almost to a boil when small bubble forms around the side


3)  Pour the heated cream over the chocolate, stirring until the chocolate has melted or place it over a simmering pot of water, ensuring the bowl does not touch the water.

4) Once the chocolate has thoroughly melted and begun to thicken, stir in the orange liqueur/juice/essence.
5) Pour the mixture into the pastry shell.
6) Leave in a cook place (but not in the fridge) to set for 1-2 hours.

7) Sprinkle with remaining orange zest

All Done ~

It was really easy to make :D because I simply made the filling ~ woo hoo! I love easy and quick recipes, it only took me 20 minutes to make that’s why I made another tart while waiting for it to set hehe

I didn’t put any extra sugar so it was slightly bitter chocolate tart, and even though Mr Bao complained that it lacked orange flavour  I thought it was just right :P

Hope you liked this recipe ~ and Thanks again to Kirk for making it so easy for me :D

Special Offer – Jam For Joe

Australia, Melbourne, Reviews April 13, 2012 Comments: 54

Hello Everyone :) I still have a bucket load of places in HK that I haven’t blogged about yet, but I’ve also been eating out back at home, so thought it would be nice to blog about Melbourne again. I wanted to introduce you guys to a cafe in our local area – Jam For Joe in Blackburn.

Great place for catch ups~

It’s a discrete stand alone cafe on Blackburn Rd, located within the One Community Church, it’s quite easy to drive past it, so look out for the sign :) I have to admit, I’ve driven past Jam for Joe so many times, but never had the intention to check it out. Until one day, I got pretty bored of the cafes we usually go and dragged Mr Bao to go with me ~

Kids friendly cafe ~

I really like the casual decor of this cafe and all the natural light that they get, it really creates a relaxing environment :) Perfect for catch ups and because it’s situated right across a primary school and day care centre, it’s also a kids friendly cafe with books and toys for the kiddies to play with ~

The lovely Amanda who does everything :)

I’ve visited a few times and have wanted to blog about this cafe, so I told Amanda and Chef John that I was a food blogger and if they’d mind if I took photos and asked a few questions. I was so nervous that they were going to tell me to leave hahaha but they were so kind to speak to me and answer my questions. Amanda and John are business partners, and also in-laws, John is married to Megan (Amanda’s Sister) ~ I was a little embarrassed when I asked if they were partners, because I thought they were a ‘husband and wife’ team LOL! Amanda is in charge of everything besides cooking ~ she takes the orders, makes the coffee, serves the food, cleans the tables and collects the money! It’s amazing how she does it all on her own!

I also love how they came up with the name of the cafe, ‘JAM’ stands for ‘John, Amanda and Megan’ and ‘Joe’ is actually American slang for coffee :D

Chef John :)

This is Chef John ~ he has 25 years of chef experience and had previously worked at the Como Hotel and cooked for Bon Jovi’s Thanks Giving Dinner wow! I never thought I’d find such an experienced chef at our local cafe, that’s why we should never judge a book by it’s cover hahaha

Lunch Menu ~

They have a simple lunch menu, with only a few items to choose from but Chef John would rather use the freshest ingredients and focus on making them the best instead of having a large menu.

Skinny Mocha $3.5AUD

After a couple of questions, I was ready to eat and drink lol I hadn’t had breakfast so was starving again :P started off with a mocha ~ they use Jasper Coffee beans here. After spending more than 4 months in HK with bad coffee, this was definitely a decent cup of mocha, I could actually taste the coffee! But I would have liked it more if they had put more chocolate in it, because I couldn’t really taste it :)

Latte $3.5AUD

Mr Bao had his usual latte ~ he seemed to enjoy it saying that it was just right, wasn’t too strong or too weak :) LOL as per usual I drank all of the ‘milk froth’ because that’s what I like the most hehe ~

Baked Beans $14.50AUD

Even though it was close to 1:30pm, I really wanted ‘breakfast’ food. YAY they serve breakfast here till 2pm :) so I ordered the baked beans, I’ve had them before and remember it being very delicious! It’s actually one of their signature dishes ~

Love Poached Eggs ~

It’s homemade baked beans with chorizo sausages, baby spinach and topped with a poached egg. It’s also got some chilli which gives it an extra kick ~ which I love! But this may be a little hot for some people, so if you don’t really like chilli, just let Chef John know and I’m sure he’d be able to help you out. This is such a flavoursome and filling dish, I had to fight Mr Bao off, he kept eating it! The buttery toast matched well with the baked beans, but I think I would’ve liked sourdough instead hehe I like really dense breads :P

East West Chicken Burger $15AUD

Mr Bao had the Beef burger last time, and I remember that being so yummy too! But he’s on a ‘no beef’ diet because of his eczema so he got the East West Chicken Burger instead ~ it’s panini bread, with a chicken patty,tomato, roman lettuce and dressed with sweet chilli sauce with a hint of ginger :) Oh don’t forget the chips lol I didn’t take a good picture of the chips but definitely worth mentioning! They were so so so fresh and crispy! Think I’m gonna go back and just get chips next time :P

Yum yum ~

I’ve never had an Asian-inspired burger before, and really liked the ginger in the dressing and the chicken patty wasn’t ‘mushy’ like some others I’ve had, it had proper chicken meat hehe ~

Definitely recommend you dropping by if you’re around the area or looking for a new place to have brunch :) And thanks to Jam For Joe, all Never Too Sweet readers are given a special Muffin and Coffee deal for only $6AUD. You simply mention that you’re a reader of Never Too Sweet and you will get the deal :D

Thank you once again Chef John and Amanda for answering my questions ~ see you soon I still haven’t tried the salmon patties lucky that I only live around the corner :)

Daisy and Mr Bao @Nevertoosweet paid for all food and drinks mentioned in this post

Jam For Joe Cafe on Urbanspoon

Burger Time – Main St Deli

Hong Kong, Reviews, Travel Adventures April 11, 2012 Comments: 34

Since going to NYC with Mr Bao in January and experiencing the best burgers in our lives at Shake Shack :) I have been craving for a good burger! Very much like Catty from The Catty Life who’s been going on a Project Burger to find the best burger in Sydney ~ I was inspired to find a ‘half-decent’ burger in HK lol

That’s when I jumped onto Openrice, the HK version of Urbanspoon and did some research. I was surprised to find quite a few options ranging from the fast-food chains like MOS Burger, Triple O to the steakhouses such as Wooloo-mooloo :) That’s when I found Main St Deli at the Langham Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

I think was attracted  by the ‘deli’ in it’s name because it was very NYC hahaha and to be honest, another friend had told me about their desserts so I dragged Sasa to go with me ~

HUGE pickles ~

As soon as we sat down, a waiter came over and placed two places in front of us. I had to laugh at the two humongous pickles placed in front of us :) I know they were trying to replicate delicatessen’s in NYC but I’m pretty sure you don’t get huge pickles like these hahaha ~ I don’t really like pickles but still tried a little and was surprised that it wasn’t very ‘spicy’ or ‘tangy’.

Coleslaw ~

We were also given a little coleslaw which once again puzzled me, but Sasa and I enjoyed it as a little appetiser :) nothing special but at least it wasn’t out of a can like what you get from KFC :P

Onion Rings $72HKD ($9AUD) plus 10% service charge

Sasa loves onion rings so we ordered a plate as an appetiser to share ~ however, we were a little disappointed…because the batter was so thick the onion rings weren’t really crispy when we ate them. It was more like eating ‘lumps’ of flour than onion rings :( It was also quite bland…like it lacked seasoning.

Chopped Salad $158HKD ($19.82AUD) plus 10% service charge

I remember seeing a Chopped Salad recipe from The Pioneer Woman’s show, so I immediately wanted to try it. It’s a mix of iceberg lettuce, roman lettuce, avocado, grilled chicken, eggs and sprouts all chopped and mixed together. We were asked which dressing we wanted, which we found a little weird, because most places would pair the salad with the most appropriate dressing. Anyhow, we chose the honey mustard and it was served on the side, which was a little annoying because we had to mix it in ourselves and either had too much or too little :( Overall, I enjoyed this salad, but once again nothing spectacular and for the price we paid we expected a bit more.

Monster Burger 12 oz $188HKD ($23.60AUD) plus 10% service charge

Burger time! Most of their burgers came in two sizes, the 8oz or the 12oz, because we were pretty hungry we got the 12oz but girls, if you’re going alone, I’m pretty sure the 8oz is more than enough ~ we were so so so full! Damn…we shouldn’t have ordered onion rings…it came with the burger ~

Simple burger

It was a pretty simple burger with a patty and a pickle inside, it didn’t even have cheese or any tomatoes or lettuce inside. Instead they were placed on the side. We asked the patty to be made medium but some how it came out to be pretty well done. I liked the patty though :) not sure what kind of meat they used but it was flavoursome and properly seasoned YAY! I really didn’t like the bun though…it was quite dry…and the bottom bun was so soggy :(

So my verdict of their burger would be … ‘Reasonable’…I know I can’t compare them to Shake Shack or any other burger joints in NYC. Therefore, given that it as a burger found in HK it was decent, I just would have preferred if they had more components to the burger to give it an extra punch of flavour ~

Now to desserts, I walked over to their dessert cabinet and was going to get the lemon merengue pie (sorry forgot to take a pic) and just before I was going to order it…it was taken away from me…another table had just reserved it :( sighhh lesson be learnt…always order desserts BEFORE your mains :P Instead we started off with a Bannofee pie ~ I don’t remember the last time I had one so I was very excited.

Half each ~

This was a pretty classic bannofee pie, with a chocolate tart case, a thick layer of caramel, whipped cream then topped with bananas and a glaze. I was a little disappointed when I could tell that they used the Nestle Top and Fill caramel and not a homemade ‘toffee’, so it was extremely sweet, even for me. If they had used another type of caramel/toffee filling it would’ve been much better, because I quite liked the tart case and the glazed bananas :)  Poor Sasa, she was already so full but being my ‘best friend’, she was ‘forced’ to have 2 desserts with me hahaha so we went ‘half each’, I was more than happy to eat her share too but then I would just be selfish :P

Chocolate Fluff Cupcake $24HKD ($3AUD) plus 10% service charge

They had a few cupcakes and if you remember I was looking for some good cupcakes in HK too, so I was pretty happy to see them here ~ it look us a while to decide, we were tossing between the black and white and the chocolate fluff. We chose the ‘fluff’ in the end because we wanted to know what the ‘fluff’ was lol

Very dense ~

Turned out to be a dense chocolate cupcake topped with a small amount of chocolate marshmallow icing. I’m pretty sure it was original marshmallow fluff with a little cocoa powder mixed into it. Not bad, and it wasn’t really sweet but I would have preferred a bigger ‘dollop’ of it ~ Even though the cupcake was relatively moist, it was very dense…Sasa didn’t like it much because she prefers fluffy and light cupcakes ~  I would definitely go back to try their other desserts, but may go to another place for burgers ~

Main St Deli Langham Hotel
Lower Lobby Level, The Langham Hong Kong,
8 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
尖沙咀北京道8號香港朗廷酒店低層大堂
PH: 2132 7898 

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