Carven's Table

You only feel like eating warm, saucey, meaty, heart warming kinda dish during winter especially. The other day i made this chicken casserole with whatever i've got in the fridge and the pantry and i almost burnt down the kitchen hood, when i tried to deglaze brandy in the pan. Guess what! I've dumped in 22 different ingredients, and then it strucked my mind that i can play taste test using this dish on my housemates! It shouldn't be that hard, but she only got 14 right! Here's what in it: Olive oil Black Pepper Salt Stock Brandy Red Wine Butter Carrot Onion Garlic Bacon Thyme Celery Chicken Plain Flour Cumin Ground Chat Potato Olive Bay leaves Clove Sherry Vinegar Mushroom Pretty good huh! I had it with cous cous and sultanas, don't want to eat with the normal mash potato, abit too heavy i think!

My matching colour coffee cup and saucer They are so expensive compare to the local coffee eg. Fiori, Rubra, 5 Senses. At $22.50 you only get 250g of coffee bean, but they are so aromatic, not too bitter nor too mild, just enough OMPH to last you for the whole day. Some of our local brand is very good too, i love Fiori and beans from Epic Espresso even our local Yahava coffee from Margaret River is very nice too! But if you travel overseas, you know you can still get good coffee no matter where you go, yup that's right, illy coffee will be there for you no matter where you are, when you needed the caffeine fix! :) Have you discovered any other good coffee bean around too?

I believe Vans Cafe and Deli is no stranger to all Perthians, at least it is popular among the southern suburbs peeps. I've heard a lot of good recommendations from my friends, today i finally understand why. Situated at the corner of a busy street off Stirling Highway, just next to the Cottesloe train station. We walked in without a reservation just 10 mins before lunch hour starts, there are still customers chatting away with their cup of latte or english breakfast tea from breakfast, or locals who just finish their morning jog around the area came for a cup of tea with an organic slice of sweets, chilling out with todays paper, catching up with their neighbour and friends or a group of mums and bubs sharing stories on how fast their babies grow. Wonderful laid back atmosphere, mostly cater to the upper class married women with their overly done hair, their LV bags and sipping away their French Champagne. Don't worry, it is a monday, there are also urban chic uni s...

Master Chef Australia finished a while ago, the TV show received tremendously good rating. No doubt, i was a big fan of the show. If anyone still remember one of the first taste test that featured in the show, it was George's mom's recipe for this awesome bolognaise. I am glad i wrote down the recipe for this bolognaise, i was trying out this recipe the other day, and boy you don't really want to go out to your random neighbourhood cafe for bolognaise ever again! George Colombaris's Bolognaise E.V.O.O (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) Diced onion Diced garlic Beef Mince Veal Mince Pork Mince Cinnamon Ground Bay Leaves Nutmeg Ground Whole Clove/ Clove Ground Tomato Paste Chopped Tomato/ Canned Diced Tomato Salt Pepper Celery Carrot White Wine I did put in my own spin, as we don't have beef and veal mince in the freezer, we only put in pork mince. And we put in some fresh herbs - oregano and basil, and diced zucchini for some green. We put the ground spices into the mince, giv...

Was making scones the other day, using the most basic scones recipe that i got. 250grm Self Raising Flour 1 Tsp Baking Powder 50grm Unsalted Butter (diced) 150ml Milk (Soured with squeeze of lemon juice) 1 egg Icing Sugar to dust Preheat oven to 220c degree. Sift flour and baking powder together, then rub in butter until crumbly texture, add in milk & egg until a sticky dough form, put in a tiny bit more flour so that it won't be that sticky. Over here, i added some sultanas into the dough, give them a good knead. Dust some flour on your bench, roll it out until about 2cm using a pastry cutter ( you can use any kind of pastry cutter and any thickness you prefer). I love small scones, so i used a small round cutter. Put them on a tray line with baking paper, brush the top of scones with egg white and dust some icing sugar on top (that would help to achieve a glossy look) Bake them for about 15 mins. VOILA! Nothing beats freshly baked scones, whipped up some vanilla flavoured cre...

Located at the upbeat swanky back street of East Perth, you just have to open your eyes big enough to find the restaurant, but don't worry, once you found it, you'll be amazed. Dark, intimate red lighting, chocolate suede booths and brown hairy walls, sets a funky 1970s vibe. Chef owner John Mead and his wife Maria added their personal touches on the decor, bi-monthly season menu, hip cocktail menu and their good looking wine list. I was pretty impress! I thought i was somewhere in Melbourne/Europe's bistro. The waitstaff was smiling and politely greeting us, they were friendly enough to explain the menu and recommend a few of their own favourite too! Went there on my birthday with some mates, they don't have a huge menu, but good enough for you to decide on which one to have, because all of them sounds so good! Abit Mod-OZ + European flare. Crumbed Fresh Local Wasabi Filled Scallops, Japanese Noodle Salad, Lemon Teriyaki Dressing After tossing back and fort...

What would you normally have when you're having lunch in Freo? Perhaps some fish n chips, a big bowl of chilli mussels or some big ass gourmet pizza to go with a pint of freshly brewed local beer. There are close 100 restaurant/eatery outlet in Fremantle, but it's abit hard to pick out a good quality restaurant that sells the above mentioned dishes that taste good! Unfortunately for us, it was Father's day sunday, everywhere in Freo was packed with families and tourists, some places like The Little Creatures was so packed that you need to wait up to 30mins to get a table for 2. Needless to say, we settled at Joe's Fish Shack, we have been going to Circerellos and Kailis, have yet to give Joe's a go! Despite being ignored for close to 10mins standing at the door, waiting to be seated, this shed looking restaurant has being decorated with lotsa fishing equipment, photos of fisherman, old newspaper clip and an used van's frame as their counter. Situated by ...

While we were sipping our coffee at Soto Espresso in Highgate, we were thinking where to go for reasonable price dinner. Instinctively, we whipped out our Entertainment book to look for bargain dinner on a Monday night. I know there are probable a lot of good restaurant that we can go to along Beaufort St, but we wanted to take the opportunity to use the discount offer on Entertainment book. Then, Mille Cafe it is! Went with a party of 5, we all had ok and some not-up-to-par food. We shared 2 portion of garlic bread to start with, it is not something worth shouting about as the garlic bread was lack in flavour. One of my friend had their pork belly which was quite good, nice balanced flavour and texture. Didn't get the chance to snap a picture of it, but it looks presentable too. One of my mate had the MSA sirloin steak, it was served with a VERY huge portion of mash and some green beans, for those carbs/potato eaters, they must have love it. However, the steak was way overco...