Sticky Rice & Kaya Macarons

I am pretty excited about these macarons. These days it takes a lot to get me excited about a macaron flavour, I find myself getting weary of them. But this one is pretty special. From the moment I started baking macarons I've always wanted to make a kaya flavoured one. Anyone who has read my blog for long enough knows about my intense love of kaya, the wonderful Malaysian coconut-egg jam flavoured with pandan, which is somewhere between a coconut custard and dulce de leche. It's heavenly. These days you can buy the spread in jars from Asian groceries around Sydney, but nothing beats the homemade version. I'm especially fussy about it because I don't like even the slightest bit of graininess in my kaya, it has to be silky smooth. The only way to achieve this is to stand over a double boiler, stirring it continuously. And I mean continously. I always have a sore arm the next morning. But it's worth the effort for every delicious drop of that golden, pandan-flavoured magic jam.

So I was a little peeved to find out that the most popular way to serve kaya was already being sold in macaron form - a kaya toast macaron, with the butter in the centre and everything! I wanted to try something original, rather than doing an idea that was already out there. So my next idea was a Kaya with Sticky Rice Macaron. This is another common way of serving kaya in Malaysia, either with a big mound of plain sticky rice or compressed squares of sticky rice tinged blue with the use of blue pea flowers. The blue squares version is known as Pulut Tai Tai, you can see a great example photo of this dessert here. It's gotta be one of my favourite Malaysian kuih ever, combining my love of kaya and my childhood fascination with blue-coloured food.

So I decided to include that wonderful blue colouring in my macaron shells, by swirling some gel colouring into the macaron mixture. I would have loved to have used the original blue pea flowers to tint the shells, but I think it's next to impossible to buy it here :( So blue food colouring would have to do. I LOVE how beautiful the shells turned out with those bright swirls of colour. I even used the leftover sticky rice to make some of the actual kuih, which you can sort of see in the photo above. Hopefully anyone who knows the original dessert can immediately tell where I got the inspiration from.

The filling for these Pulut Tai Tai Macarons is a mixture of kaya, homemade with my new improved recipe, and steamed glutinous rice. It has a strong aroma of pandan, the caramelised sticky coconut jam and a little bit of bite from the sticky rice grains, sort of like the rice pudding macaron from Adriano Zumbo. It might seem like a lot of effort for a macaron filling, but you can always reduce the prep time by using store-bought kaya if you're not as fussy as I am. But personally I think it's definitely worth the extra effort. Plus you can eat all the leftover sticky rice and kaya!

Kaya & Sticky Rice (Pulut Tai Tai) Macarons
(makes about 15 macarons)
100g aged egg whites (you can use fresh eggs too, just make sure they are room temperature. I always use fresh these days, and zap it in the microwave on defrost for 10 seconds)
110g almond meal, dried in a cool (100°C (212°F) or less) oven for 5 minutes and sifted
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
Optional: 2 x 1 tsp powdered egg whites (available from The Essential Ingredient), helps to stabilise egg whites but is not necessary
Royal blue gel food colouring
Kaya jam, store-bought or homemade (my recipe here)
Sticky rice, cooked and cooled - I steamed about 1 cup in a rice cooker with a fresh pandan leaf, but you can skip the pandan if it's unavailable

Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Place icing sugar in food processor and pulse for a minute to remove any lumps. Stir in almond meal and pulse for about 30 seconds to combine. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites and egg white powder in a medium mixing bowl until the egg white powder dissolves and it reaches soft peaks. With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar and beat until it reaches stiff peaks.

Add meringue and to your dry mixture and mix, quickly at first to break down the bubbles in the egg white (you really want to beat all the large bubbles out of the mixture, be rough!), then mix carefully as the dry mixture becomes incorporated and it starts to become shiny again. Take care not to overmix, the mixture should flow like lava and a streak of mixture spread over the surface of the rest of the mixture should disappear after about 30 seconds. Using a skewer, dip the tip into the blue food colouring and place several streaks of blue colour throughout the macaron mixture. Place in a piping bag and pipe rounds of about 3.5cm diameter on baking sheets. Tap baking sheets carefully and firmly on the benchtop a couple times to remove any large bubbles.

Leave to dry for about half an hour, so that when you press the surface of one gently it does not break. This will help prevent any cracking and help the feet to form on the macs. Preheat your oven to 140-150°C (285-300°C), depending on your oven. Place on top of an overturned roasting tray or another baking sheet if your sheets are not professional grade, for better heat distribution. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your shells. Carefully test if the base of the shell is ready by gently lifting one and if it's still soft and sticking to the baking paper, then it needs to bake for a few minutes longer. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray for a few minutes, then gently remove from the sheet and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Mix together equal portions of kaya and sticky rice, I needed about 1/2 cup of each. Sandwich macaron shells with the mixture and then refrigerate overnight in an airtight container to allow the flavour to mature. Serve at room temperature.

Pandan Lamingtons

Lamingtons. They are so quintessentially Aussie. We all have our preferences, some of us swear by the classic version, some like the cream/jam filled ones. And then there's pandan. It's leaves are so widely used in Malaysian dishes that it was a total shock to my system when I came back to live in Sydney 11 years ago and found that hardly anyone had heard of it. I've been over the moon with the gradual increase in Malaysian cuisine in Australia, and the eventual appearance of pandan in desserts, like Dan Hong's pandan chiffon cake on Masterchef (my only gripe is that they kept pronouncing it on the show like 'pang-dang' which made me cringe so friggin much. It's meant to be pronounced more like 'pahn-dahn').

I've put these elements together, one totally Australian and the other bringing me straight back to Malaysia, to create these Pandan Lamingtons. Lamington purists will probably be totally offended by this bright green monstrosity but if there was ever a dessert which I would use to describe myself, this would be it. It brings together my two loves, my happy childhood memories in Australia and my love of Malaysian food (including my Mum's awesome cooking). They may not be the prettiest cakes ever but they are wonderful to eat. I'd been planning them for ages and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out.

I adapted a recipe for plain lamingtons by adding some pandan essence paste to the sponge cake. It was quite convenient that the recipe used a chocolate ganache rather than a cocoa icing for the coating, as I was able to switch it to white chocolate ganache which was a much better match for that lovely soft & fluffy green pandan cake. Coconut and pandan are always perfect together, plus the shredded coconut on the outside is exactly the type of coconut that they use in Malaysian desserts and kuih. The finished lamingtons even remind of Malaysian kuih with that hint of green hiding underneath the layer of coconut (which was a total accident, the white chocolate ganache ended up being a lot more transparent than I had expected).

Pandan Lamingtons
(makes about 32, adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe)
8 eggs
250g caster sugar
3/4 tsp pandan paste (more if you use the more watery pandan essence)
250g plain flour
30g unsalted butter, melted
400g shredded coconut

For the white chocolate ganache coating:
600g white chocolate
300ml pouring cream (min. 35% milk fat pure cream)

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F). Grease and line the base with baking paper in a 24x32cm lamington tray, or two 20cm square cake tins. Whisk eggs, pandan paste and sugar in a heatproof bowl (it will be freakishly green at this point but don't worry, it will lighten after you whip it) over a saucepan of gently simmering water for 5-10 minutes or until warm (about 40°C/105°F), lighter and frothy. Transfer to an electric mixer and whisk on high speed in a large mixing bowl for 10 minutes or until mixture has tripled in volume. Sift over plain flour in batches and, using a metal spoon, fold gently to combine between additions. Just before adding the last of the flour, fold through melted butter. Pour into prepared tin(s) and bake in centre of oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer withdraws clean. Stand in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then turn out onto racks and cool completely.

For the white chocolate ganache coating, combine chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. When chocolate begins to melt, stir gently until combined and smooth and set aside in a warm place.

Scatter shredded coconut over a tray. Cut sponge into 4-5cm squares. Using 2 forks, dip each square into the ganache and shake to remove excess. (If ganache starts to thicken, place bowl over gently simmering water to thin.) Roll each square in coconut, shake off excess and place on a wire rack (sitting over a tray). Stand for at least 1 hour or until chocolate sets. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 3 days.

Banana Pancakes with Lemon Coconut Curd - Guest Post on Rasa Malaysia

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked by Bee from Rasa Malaysia to do a guest post on her wonderful blog (thanks to Ellie for suggesting me!). I was completely indecisive on what recipe I was going to do for this special post, but I finally decided my Mum's Malaysian Banana Pancakes. These are no ordinary pancakes, and was one of my favourite treats when I was younger. I put my own little spin on the recipe by pairing it with a Lemon & Coconut Curd which is mind-blowingly good. Trust me.

So I'm very excited because my guest post is up today! Please head over to Bee's blog and check it out: Rasa Malaysia: Banana Pancakes with Lemon Coconut Curd.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream

Ok, I need everyone to keep an open mind. Don't run away! Sweet corn ice cream is AMAZING. It's my favourite ice cream flavour in the whole wide world. I grew up with it in Malaysia, where sweet corn is frequently used in desserts. I get a lot of mixed reactions when I tell people about sweet corn ice cream, but c'mon. It's SWEET corn. Popcorn ice cream is all the rage at the moment (and it's awesome), so it's not too much of a leap to sweet corn ice cream, right? Trust me, it's delicious.

Whenever I eat sweet corn ice cream, I remember visiting relatives around Malaysia and waiting with my cousins on the street for the ice cream man to drive up on his little motorcycle with a big chilled metal box on the back. We'd buy sweet corn (and red bean) potong (cut) ice cream on a stick and they'd already be melting on to our hands before we had even started eating them. The ice cream was lightly flavoured with sweet corn, with a hint of coconut milk and little chunks of corn kernels throughout it. Whenever I go back to visit my parents, my Mum will always buy me a big box of sweet corn potong ice cream; she knows me too well.

Obviously sweet corn ice cream is very hard to find in Sydney. I've tried to make it at home using recipes I've seen on other blogs and I never found a recipe that was quite right. The flavour was either too rich or artificial or the texture wasn't quite right. It couldn't be too rich or too sweet, and it had to be distinctly flavoured with sweet corn with lots of chunky pieces throughout. So I finally gave up with other recipes and jumped into the kitchen and started experimenting. The results were pretty darn good. This ice cream does not require an ice cream maker, in fact it doesn't require any churning at all and it's SO easy! The whipping of the cream combined with the condensed milk means that it's light and fluffy enough to have the right consistency and texture of normal ice cream. It's packed full of sweet corn flavour, as well as a light tinge of coconut.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream
(makes approx 1L ice cream)
300ml coconut milk (I used a 270ml can)
250ml water
300ml thickened cream
200ml sweetened condensed milk
2 ears sweetcorn, shucked

Slice corn kernels off the cobs and place both the kernels and the remaining cobs in a medium sauce pan with coconut milk and water. Slowly bring just to the boil on the stovetop and then simmer on low for 20-30 mins or until the corn kernels are cooked through and the liquid has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

For a more subtle corn flavour, strain all the kernels out of the coconut milk and only stir in the 3 tbsp of corn kernels when you are ready to freeze (to be used if you want whole kernels of corn in your ice cream). If you want a stronger corn flavour, do not strain all the kernels out of the mixture. Place the mixture with the remaining corn kernels in a food processor or blender and pulse until smooth. Strain mixture to remove any large lumps. Chill in the refrigerator while preparing the rest of the ice cream mixture.

Whip cream in a large mixing bowl until it reaches soft peaks. Fold in sweetened condensed milk (or beat in with electric mixer on low, take care to not overmix). Finally, fold in coconut milk mixture and leftover whole corn kernels and pour into a 1L capacity container for freezing (I froze mine uncovered in a stainless steel bowl). Freeze overnight or until set. I found my ice cream was fluffy enough but if you find your mixture is too icy, churn once in a food processor before refreezing again and it should be nice and smooth.

It might seem weird to those who have never heard of it before, but don't bag it 'til you've tried it. Hopefully one day someone in Sydney will sell it, but for now I'm more than happy to whip some up with this recipe.

Ginger & Spice, Neutral Bay (2)

I know, I've blogged about Ginger & Spice plenty already. But when Ellie suggested that we meet up with a larger group so that we could order more dishes one night, I could not say no. And of course, the first thing I had to order was my favourite lemon iced tea (which had grown in size, score!). It's like a slushie version of a strong flavoured ice lemon tea, but more sweet than sour.

Ginger & Spice is a very interesting restaurant in many ways, the food is authentic if you ignore the tamed down North Shore dishes (do NOT order sweet and sour pork), it's not cheap by Asian restaurant standards but it's quite cheap by Neutral Bay standards. But the food here is usually some of the most consistent and the service is always slick. I've been coming here (mostly for lunch) for nearly 10 years, and that says a lot.

Ngoh Hiang ($18.80)

We start off with the ngoh hiang, deep fried five spice rolls of minced pork, prawns and water chestnut in bean curd skin. It's a dish I don't normally order but the skin is very crisp and they have a strong flavour from the five spice. It also comes with a dark, thick dipping sauce which I quite like. A little on the pricey side for what it is though.

Hainanese Half chicken ($20.80)

Rather than getting a combined set of chicken rice, we order a half chicken to share, and a big bucket of chicken rice for the whole table. Exxxxcellent. Usually I think Ginger & Spice has one of the better chicken rices in Sydney, with a very slippery skin and quite tasty rice. They don't get that lovely gelatinous layer between the skin and the flesh but I can live without it. It's a little disappointing today, though the skin is as smooth as usual, the flesh is a little on the chewy side. It's a surprise because I can't remember the last time I was disappointed by their chicken.

Fried Hokkien Mee ($16.80)

I quickly overcome my disappointment with the sight of my favourite dish, the Singapore-style hokkien mee. It's rare to find a restaurant that does this version, braised noodles with seafood, egg and bean sprouts in a rich prawn stock. I absolutely adore the sauce, it's got such a great depth of flavour. Usually I stir in all the sambal on the side without any problems, but it is surprisingly fiery tonight and everyone at the table suffers a little from the heat. Sorry girls! The surprising spicyness of the sambal is confirmed when I take a serve home for A and he exclaimed after tasting some of it.

Squid Kecap Manis ($21.80)

Another rare dish to find, and also one of my favourites is the kecap manis squid. Lightly battered squid is deep fried and then tossed with my favourite thick sweet soy, chilli and tamarind to produce a very tender squid with beautifully crunchy/sticky exterior. The sauce is so tasty, and you find your fork making its way back to the plate for more without even realising it.

Cuttlefish Kang Kong

The cuttlefish kang kong is one of the dishes available on the 'merry-go-round' that they always have on the menu. I stupidly forgot that it comes covered in peanuts so I wasn't able to taste the dish myself, but most people say it's a pretty tasty dish. The cuttlefish is that sort of sweet, almost pickled-looking version, which has a texture that you might find strange if you've never had it before. But I looove kangkong and could eat a whole plate of it on my own, so I'm a little bit sad about that.

Singapore chilli prawns ($22.80)

It's around this time that we realise we ordered far too much for our table, but we all have to try a little of the chilli prawns. Huge, fresh prawns are doused in that eggy, tomato sauce that usually comes with Singapore chilli crab. I always love the big prawns the serve at Ginger and Spice, and while their chilli sauce isn't exactly mind-blowing, it's not too bad. I've definitely had worse.

So we end up paying about $30 pp which is pretty normal for Ginger & Spice, and not bad considering that we had wayyyy too much food and probably could have skipped one of the dishes entirely. Though I was a little disappointed by the Hainanese chicken and annoyed that I made the hokkien mee too spicy, I'll definitely be back again because Ginger and Spice is just one of my comfort restaurants. One of the restaurants that will cheer me up on a bad day :)

Ginger & Spice
240 Military Rd
Neutral Bay NSW 2089
(02) 9908 2552
Mon-Sun: 5.30-10pm
Tue-Sun: 12-3pm

Homemade Kaya (Coconut Jam), on Toast with Soft Boiled Eggs

I was so excited after I made this that I couldn't wait to post it, so it is skipping past my growing backlog of baking posts, expressed delived to you. If you've been reading my blog in the past, you will have heard about my obsession with homemade kaya. It is a thick, sweet coconut curd/jam, made with eggs, coconut and flavoured with pandan. In Malaysia, it is served on toasted white bread with a thick layer of butter, or on top of coconut glutinous rice, or even inside a pastry puff. A perfect kaya (for me), has to be super smooth, not even the tiniest hint of roughness, and caramelised so that it is golden brown. The stuff they sell in the Chinese supermarket just doesn't cut it, it's usually very grainy in texture and a green colour from the pandan essence that they use. The homemade stuff is usually cooked with fresh pandan leaves, so it doesn't turn green.

The homemade stuff is also usually made with freshly squeezed thick coconut milk, which means you need to get a fresh coconut and grate the sh*t out of it. Even with one of the nifty coconut graters that they usually use, this is a lot of work just for a jar of jam and it has been the main thing stopping me from trying this recipe at home. But after finding some fresh pandan leaves at the Thai supermarket Pontip (a couple doors down from Chat Thai), I decided to give it a try with some tetra-pack thick coconut milk from Thailand, just to see if it came close to that lovely golden spread that I miss so much.

A phone call to my Mum reveals that she pretty much knows a recipe off the top of her head, so after getting some valuable advice from her, and finding a pretty decent looking recipe by Amy Beh, I tried to make my first batch of kaya. I was very worried about it getting lumpy or grainy, so I cooked it over a double boiler at a very low heat, stirring constantly. A lot of recipes tell you to leave it to steam with a cover over it for a while, letting it caramelise, but I was too scared to try this method. The result was a very, VERY smooth spread, sweet & brown from the long cooking time, heady with the scent of pandan leaves and richly flavoured with coconut and egg. It wasn't quite as caramelised as I would have liked, so I added the extra caramelised sugar to give it that really golden tint. Served thickly spread on toast with loads of butter, and a side a soft boiled eggs with a splash of soy sauce and white pepper, this is my most favourite breakfast in the whole wide world.

Homemade Kaya (Coconut Spread)
(adapted from this recipe by Amy Beh)
UPDATED 2 Sept 2011
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
200g caster sugar
250 ml thick coconut milk (from the grated white of 2 coconuts, or the store bought if you cant get it, obviously fresh is better)
2-3 pandan (screwpine) leaves, knotted (add pandan essence to taste if you can't get the leaves)
2 tbsp sugar + 1 tbsp of water

Set up a double boiler on your stove top (I used a wok full of water with a wire stand for my mixing bowl to sit on). Whisk eggs and egg yolks in a heatproof mixing bowl until it is well combined. Gradually add sugar while whisking, and beat until the sugar starts to dissolve.

Slowly add thick coconut milk to mixture, whisking until all the sugar dissolves. Strain mixture if using fresh or canned coconut milk. Place heatproof mixing bowl in double boiler, on a low enough heat so that the water is gently boiling. Add pandan leaves and stir continuously. You can use a wooden spoon to stir but I prefer to use a silicon spatula, since it helps to stop a layer from forming and getting lumpy on the bottom.

Stir continuously for 50-60 minutes. The mixture should start to go brown and thick around the 45 minute mark. If you think the mixture is cooking to fast and lumps are appearing, remove the bowl from the double boiler immediately, whisk to remove any lumps and reduce the heat before you return the bowl to the double boiler. I found that the egg white would sometimes clump together around the pandan leaves, and I had to scoop several small solid lumps of egg out of the mixture while I was stirring.

The mixture will start to get very thick and sticky. When it is at this point, remove the pandan leaves before it gets too difficult to lift them out without taking half the kaya with it.

If the mixture is starting to get too thick and it hasn't gotten brown enough, add a tablespoon of water to the kaya. It may be tempting to remove the mixture from the heat as soon as it turns brown, but you don't want to be very milky and creamy, so keep stirring it over the heat until it is light brown and not too milky. At this point if you want to be a deeper gold colour (trust me it makes it so much better), fry 2 tbsp of sugar in a small saucepan until it melts and goes golden, then add a tbsp of water and stir until the caramelised sugar is completely dissolved in the water. Carefully and slowly add sugar water to the kaya, a bit at a time, until you are happy with the sweetness and the caramelisation.

The mixture should be a smooth, lava-like texture and a dark golden colour. The double boiler ensures that the mixture does not go grainy or lumpy. Cool the kaya completely before placing in dry, clean jars. Store in fridge.
Yield: 1 jar, about 250ml

I know, the yield is piddly compared to the amount of effort you put in. But it's so worth it. My arms are still aching from the hours of continuous stirring I did, but the kaya was so good fresh off the stove with toast and soft boiled eggs.

Now as I was saying, my favourite way to have kaya is spread very thickly on white toast with lots of butter and served with soft boiled eggs, soy & white pepper. You can get this breakfast all over Malaysia and Singapore. Trust me, it is not healthy. It is not for the faint-hearted. But it's so devilishly good. I'm not lucky enough to have a soft-boiled egg maker, so this is the only way I know how to do it at home

Kaya Toast & Soft Boiled Eggs
3 large eggs
1200 ml water
Light soy sauce
White pepper

Boil water in a kettle or on the stove. Place eggs in a metal pot that comes with a lid. If you are worried about your eggs cracking, use a pin to carefully poke a hole in the base of the eggs and this is a foolproof way to stop your eggs cracking on contact with the hot water. When the water is boiled, pour over the eggs, make sure that your pot is the right size that the water level will cover the eggs. Place lid on and leave it for about 8 minutes.

Remove eggs using a slotted spoon and carefully crack along the middle of the egg using a knife. Crack open egg very gently into a small bowl, the egg white should be just set but still runny and should stick to the egg yolk. If there is still uncooked egg white then you will have to adjust the amount of time you keep the lid on the pot. Add a splash of soy sauce and a shake of white pepper.

For the kaya toast:
Get some very white bread, like the cheapo sweet white stuff. Toast two slices and cover one slice with a thick layer of butter. (I told you this wasn't for the fainthearted)

On the other piece of toast, spread a thick layer of kaya over one side. Sandwich the two pieces of toast together and then slice in half using a bread knife. Serve toast with soft boiled eggs.

This breakfast made me a very happy girl. I still want to perfect the kaya recipe, but this one is pretty decent, it tastes really good but it's just a tad milkier than I would prefer. It's probably because I used not-fresh coconut milk, but I don't think I can be bothered grating coconuts anytime soon. The stirring is pretty tiring, but the final result is worth the effort. There are definitely easier recipes out there, ones that don't require constant stirring, and others that don't use a double boiler, but I think this method gives you the smoothest kaya, and the texture is one of the most important things. If you can't get fresh pandan leaves a bit of pandan essence will do, but it might turn your kaya a bit green.

@Bangkok, Haymarket

We had to find an appropriate place to take my visiting cousin for dinner. It had to be not too expensive, not Malay/Singaporean, BYO and um, open. On a Monday, this is surprisingly difficult. Most places that were open were either too expensive or didn't let you BYO, so we decided to try going to Spice I Am. We showed up at the door to find it closed :( but no worries, Chat Thai was just around the corner. It was miserably cold and rainy, and when we got to Chat Thai there was about an hour wait for a table. After waiting nearly an hour and a half the last time I visited Chat Thai, I didn't have the patience for it. My brother had heard that the restaurant just across the road was a semi-decent alternative to Chat Thai. @Bangkok is tucked away inside Capitol Square, previously only known to be as the super azn place to go make sticker photos. It looks like your typical westernised Thai place, but we decided to give it a go, since it was out of the rain and had plenty of tables.

Thai Ice Tea ($3.00)

The service was very friendly and on the ball. We took our time figuring out what we wanted, but the food came ridiculously fast after we put our order in. I love Thai iced teas, so I had to get one for myself. This one was quite different from the one at Chat Thai, not very sweet and had quite a smoky flavour to it. I think it might have been better to get the milk tea here since the non-milk one wasn't quite sweet enough for me.

Som Tum Moo Grob ($15.90) - Spicy papaya salad served with crispy pork belly

They were very good about taking the nuts out of the som tum for us, but it was still flavoursome. The papaya salad was nice and crunchy and the bits of pork belly were very crispy and fatty indeed. It could have done with a little more chilli, maybe because I am a chilli fiend who is used to the fiery hot dishes you usually get at Chat Thai. But overall it was pretty tasty.

Sator Pad Ped ($16.90)- Stir-fried petal net (petai) and prawns in spicy red curry paste, with pepper corn, Kachai and basil

I looooooove petai. I am slightly amused that at the warnings on the menu about the taste and smell of the petai. It can be a little unpleasant for some people (it's earned the name stink bean for a reason!), but I love it! Apparently I have a thing for vegetables that does strange things to your pee (petai, asparagus, beetroot etc). This is a nice dish, with plenty of petai and prawns. It's quite spicy and with some good flavours, even though the petai are a little softer than I prefer.

Yum Pla Dook Foo ($13.90) - Crispy minced fish topped with spicy & sour salad: green apple, chilli, lemon juice, crushed cashew nut, Thai herms and fish sauce (green mango seasonal)

This dish had tons of crispy minced fish which is like the catfish salads you get at a lot of Thai restaurants. The crispy fish bits were nice but not fish enough, it kind of felt like we were eating tempura batter. But it was still quite nice to eat! The green apple salad was a little bland, but I only had a little of it since they forgot to leave the cashew nuts out of this dish. The fish in this went really well with the papaya salad above!

Gaeng Som Goong Malagor ($16.90) - Prawns and slices of green papaya in a hot and hour yellow curry

Lastly we tried the prawn curry, which was more of a soupy type of curry than a thick gravy. It was uniquely flavoured and pleasant with rice. The bits of papaya were really nice. I'm not usually a big fan of watery curries but this one wasn't bad. Overall @Bangkok didn't have the crazy spicy, punchy flavours that I usually get at Chat Thai, but it was definitely more authentic than the usual westernised Thai takeaway places that keep popping up in suburbs all over Sydney. It's around the same price range, possibly even cheaper, which makes it very good value. Not too bad a substitute when you really can't be bothered waiting in line for Chat Thai. But usually I can be bothered :P

At Bangkok
742 George St
Shop G11 Capitol Sq 730
Sydney 2000