Mary had a little lamb...

...and I'm sure she wished that she ordered more. 

I think we have established that I love being fed. No matter how foul a mood I'm in, I generally get happy when I get fed. So when I received this invite from Subway in my inbox - especially during a difficult week (I got hit by a car, amongst other things) - I was extremely excited to attend.

The dinner was held in Moroccan Feast, a restaurant in Randwick with a great atmosphere and very friendly chef (more about him later). I arrived to long tables laid out with candles and salt and pepper bowls shaped like little tagines (how cute!) and was immediately offered refreshing cocktails to start the evening with. Soon, the all seats were filled, and hungry hungry people eagerly awaited the first round of deliciousness.



A selection of dips were first laid out in front of us - Matbouha, which I understand is a capsicum relish, eggplant and aioli, and marinated green olives. And while the dips were extremely tasty, the standout part of all of it was the bread.



Soft white bread surrounded by a crispy crust with a glass-like crunch was the perfect accompaniment to the dips. Many of us actually had to consciously stop ourselves and remember that this was just the starter, to leave room in out bellies for the rest of the food.


As this dinner was to introduce Subway's new Moroccan Lamb Sub, there was sure to be lamb in the menu.



And the first manifestation of the lamb theme was in the form of spiced lamb cigars. These were served on a platter with vegetarian pastiles and mint yoghurt. The vegetarian pastiles were okay, but the lamb cigars were curiously addictive. I didn't detect much spices in the cigars, but I really like the luxuriousness the mint yoghurt added to the dish. Yes, the yoghurt wasn't particularly minty either, but it's just really tasty! Besides, I'm not much of a mint person (I really don't like mint chocolates that are all about the mint and kills most of the chocolate taste), so this combination suited me just fine.

Just as the conversation was buzzing and the food was flowing, lilting music came on and we heard the sound of bells. Just as the thought of reindeer landing on roofs crossed my mind, this lady, resplendent in a blue jeweled and tasseled outfit, came dancing out. 



On top of being extremely skilled at what she does - how did she manage all those belly rolls???? - she was extremely HILARIOUS and entertaining. She even got many of us up and dancing with her. Makes me want to take belly dancing lessons - I've already got the first bit, right? =)

All this excitement, and that was even before the main.



Betty and I shared the Moroccan Lamb Meatballs and Aubergine Tagine, and the Moroccan-style Barramundi with chickpeas. The lamb meatballs were sandwiched between 2 thick sliced of spiced aubergine. The bed of cous cous that it was served on was lovingly drenched in thick tomato-ey sauce and in turn, mint yoghurt was poured with a generous hand over rich meaty lamb. The barramundi - bottom photo - was nice and flaky, but the best part about it was the generously flavourful chilli and spices reduction. I could have just eaten a bucketful of the the reduction ladled over a bed of cous cous.

The salad was another highlight of my evening. Sometimes, lamb can get a little bit...rich, and the two salads really lifted the tone and colour of the meal. While the rocket with citrus vinaigrette was nice, I absolutely adored the red cabbage with haloumi and pomegranate! Crispy red cabbage was dotted with little jewels that explode with a tart sweetness and was the perfect accompaniment to the hearty lamb.

At this point, I'm sure you - as I was - are wondering what this meal has to do with Subway. Almost the entire evening has passed and there hasn't been a sandwich in sight. Well, remember how I mentioned the extremely friendly chef? Well, Subway - in the spirit of "doing it your own way" - had asked him to take the new Moroccan Lamb Sub and to make it into a sit down meal. What we had eaten so far contained elements of the lamb sub!

Remember the gorgeous white bread that came with the dip? Well apparently that was Subway's white bread that had been toasted and sprinkled with rock salt. The lamb was pretty obvious, and the mint yoghurt is the sauce that would be poured over the meat in the sub! I'm quite excited that the salad will be in the sub as well - I think I've found a new love in pomegranate.

But there's one thing that Subway is famous for that hasn't made an appearance yet. Something that many people go to Subway for:

The Subway Cookie.




Besides the selection of fresh fruits that arrives - ripe figs with honey anyone? - tall martini glasses with a luscious scoop of pistachio ice cream, raw tahini and subway cookie crumbs come marching out. There's not much to say about a Subway cookie though, besides OM NOM NOM.

I must say that the nice people of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies really know how to throw a party. By the end of the night I was filled with delicious food, happily nursing a food baby, and my taste buds were tingling. It would be interesting to see how the Sub form of the food will taste, but with so many great elements, surely you can't go wrong. Added to that the rousing company in the form of Betty, Karen and Shan, good times were had all around.

Tambourine of insatiablemunchies attended The Tastes of Morocco courtesy of Subway and Hills+Knowlton Strategies.

La Premiere, Hoyts Moore Park

It's been a great time of eating lately, and it is topped off by - much like the gorgeous chocolate sundae pictured above, but more about that later - a cordial invite by the nice people at Hoyts to try their La Premiere menu!

La Premiere was described to me as their 'business class' offering - a more relaxed feel than 'first class', but more sophisticated and swanky than just a movie. Good food at the movies provide a multitude of possibilities: Let's say you're on a first date and you're nervous. Well, no awkward pre-movie dinner conversation! Just order the food at the movies, and then you have something to talk about afterwards to break the ice! Or let's say you want to meet up with a couple of girlfriends after work to catch some food and a movie. Sometimes dinner can run long, causing you to be late for the movie. Well, this solves that problem too.

The problem used to be, though, that the food at the cinema was crap. I'm sorry, I know that there's a place for cheesy nachos and popcorn, but it does not make for a great food experience if you want a 'nice night out'. When I think 'nice night out' I tend to think about decent food that's relatively light, that I can pick at with my friends. Nothing too heavy, but a nice variety.

And the heaviness was something that Hoyts wanted to address. Before this change, the menu was dominated by deep-fried food that wasn't particularly inspiring. So they partnered with Lotus & Ming and 2 newly-hired chefs to come up with something better for movie-goers to enjoy.

I like to identify myself as a rabid fan of movies - at one point I was going once a week, scary I know - so I'm very lucky to have been invited by the lovely people at Hoyts to try out this new menu!

Let's get down and yummy shall we? ;)

First up was the Peking Duck Pancakes ($17 for 4).




As someone who's grown up with these pancakes, I always get really wary of the ones offered in Australia. Sometimes it's overtly sweet, sometimes there's a bad balance of fresh veg (cucumber and spring onion) to duck, and sometimes there's so much sauce that it just gets soggy and hard to eat.

But these were genuinely a joy. You could definitely tell that the focus was on food that you could handle easily in the cinema. The duck was shredded, meaning that you didn't need to be chewing through skin - come on, we've all had those moments where we're trying to bite through duck and we've just pulled whole pieces out, leaving the rest of the roll empty. These spring rolls are definitely the type that you can pick up and eat in the dark safely, without worrying about having filling all over your clothes. The plum dipping sauce was also a nice addition, as it meant that the rolls weren't overly soggy with sauce and you had the option if you wanted more. 



In following with the roll theme, the Farm Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls ($12 for 3) were up next. Filled with a variety of ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, these spring rolls were tasty and comforting. It was served with a soy infusion sauce - I have no idea what the term means, but to me it tasted more like a dressing with a touch of tanginess than the salty hit of just soy sauce. Simple and comforting, these rolls are easy to share with friends on a girls' night out. 



The Yum Cha Combo ($17 for 6) caught me a little bit off guard. As a general rule, I don't eat dumplings unless I am going to yum cha or at a reputable chinese restaurant. There was a mixture of shrimp dumplings and chicken ones, they were decent, but not quite my thing. Especially after the first two dishes which were pleasantly surprising, these fell just a bit short for me. The bite size pieces were still great to eat in the dark, but after growing up with home-made dumplings, my personal bias just got the best of me in this one.

If you're a fan of the crunchy fried option, then you'll like this one. The Salt and Pepper Seafood Medley ($22) consisted of crumbed prawn, calamari and whiting served on a bed of fries. The seafood was good and I love how the crumbing was not saturated and dripping with oil, but I think the unsung heroes of this dish were the chips.  Paired with the garlic and chive aioli, those chips were amazingly moorish, leading us to keep picking at them throughout. The amazing part? Even after almost an hour of being on the table, the chips kept their crisp!!! There was a satisfying crunch even when many other chips would have been stale, and even when they were at room temperature, they still hit the spot texturally. LOVE THOSE CHIPS.

When  I think of chips, I somehow think of burgers, so how appropriate was it that the next thing that we got to try was the La Premiere Burger Trio ($17)?






Three mini burgers were served with a palette cleansing cranberry and raspberry juice shot. The Wagyu Beef Slider (top photo, left) consisted of a patty made with grass fed beef, cheddar cheese and tomato relish. The Grilled Chicken slider (top photo, right) consisted of marinated grilled chicken, cheese and creamy creamy avocado. And finally, the Gourmet Turkey Slider (bottom photo, top) had turkey with melted cheese and a lovely dollop of cranberry sauce.

These mini burgers were the size of a Mini-Disc (anyone remember those) and were trés cute! The beef was my absolute favourite, with heaps of gorgeous umami flavours bursting forth with every bite. It was the heaviest of the three, but the small size prevented it from being too much and weighing you down. The chicken was my next favourite, with the creamy avocado adding a touch of luxury to an otherwise light and healthy-tasting burger. I felt that the turkey was festive, and a great idea, but the turkey piece itself just was a touch dry for me. Speaking with Chris - the man who is leading the charge in the full revamp of the menu - he mentioned that the turkey burger was the trickiest because of the nature of turkey meat being quite lean. Full disclosure, though, I'm really picky about such things. Sam, whom I went with, didn't feel that it was dry at all, and loved it.

Something else that Sam and I both love is cheese - both the dairy and Disney sort - and the Cheese Board ($24) did not disappoint.



The cheeses on the board consisted of a creamy Adelaide hill Brie and Goats Cheese Curd (top left and right, respectively), Blue Cow Country Cheddar (middle, left) and and mild Hysen Blue Cheese (bottom, left), with quince paste and lavosh. A cheese board can be pretty simple, and sometimes leaves people to think that for the price they pay they can just buy the cheeses themselves and create the board. Chris had thought about this and told me that the conscious decision was made to use cheeses from suppliers that are not as commonly found so that there was something different, a point of difference from the rest. Something for people to come back for.

Well, this is something that I would definitely get again and again. I love how the Goat's Cheese Curd wasn't quite as strong on the aftertaste like many goat's cheeses I've tried. The brie melted luxuriously in my mouth, and the blue cheese was not as sharp as some of the others, making it a great beginner's blue for people who are hesitant in ordering and trying blues. I'm not a great cheddar eater, but Sam was, and this reiterated the sharing concept of the menu. There is something for everyone.

But with almost every eating experience, there is the pièce de résistance. Let me present to you the La Premiere Chocolate Fudge Brownie Sundae ($24).

As modeled by Sam, this ginormous sundae is close to the size of her face.A 1.8L glass bowl is filled with generous scoops of vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, fudgy chocolate brownie cubes, whipped cream, wafers and nuts. Holding this bowl made me want to replace (in my dream wedding) a wedding bouquet with a gargantuan ice cream sundae. Whether it's a breakup, celebration or just because, this sundae is a definite sharing favourite! There is even a strawberry version which has an entire punnet of strawberries emptied into its creamy depths. LOVE IT.

In all, I felt that the amount of effort and thought that went into the revamp - considering how people would eat the food in the dark and how they would feel after eating the food - deserves lots of praise. Considering that there are limited facilities in the kitchen, the team has done a fantastic job in presenting more than decent food with great variety. Sure, I'm not crazy about absolutely everything, but the whole point of the variety is that there is something for everyone to try.

At the moment the La Premiere menu is available in NSW at Moore Park and Chatswood, but they are expanding it in more locations soon. 

Note: Tammi and guest of Insatiable Munchies were invited as guests of Hoyts Australia.

Nuffnang and Yoplait Blogger Day Out

Oh I love blogger events, especially the ones that include friends and family.



Which is why when the nice people at Nuffnang and Yoplait emailed me with the chance to attend this Blogger Day Out, I jumped on the chance! And of course my family came along too.

Heaps of fun activities were planned:

We could make beaded necklaces and bracelets



Get our faces painted



Do some plaster painting



And eat some awesome made to order crepes!



And of course, what else would you have at a Yoplait event?



As much yoghurt as you can possibly stomach!!!

They even have yoghurt tubs as balloon weights!!



How cute is that?

As an avid yoghurt eater, I LOVE these new fruity flavours. Citrus tastes a bit like a lemon cheesecake, and mango is an awesome reminder of summer. But my FAV has to be the Apple and Cinnamon!! It totally tastes like an awesome healthy version of apple pie with ice cream. LOVE IT.



By the end of the day we were stuffed, painted and beaded. The weather was just perfect, and it was great to relax with family. Things have been a little bit tough lately, and this picnic just gave me the break that I needed. Picnic blankets and all the picnic peripherals were provided too! Don't they just think of everything?

Special thanks once again to the lovely people at Nuffnang and Yoplait for organizing this great day out for my family and me.

=)

Olive Oil Brunch

Sorry for taking so long!! I feel like my poor blog has been neglected because of other things, but never fear, I'm back and hungrier than ever!

Which is why when I got invited to this Olive Oil Brunch (in my head it's a feast) by Simon who had passed on the invitation from Fouad, I was uber excited. I've always loved the celebration of the harvest, and this definitely did not disappoint!

The brunch was held at Efendy, located in Balmain.



The olive oil was served in various ways:


Labna


Hummus


Dukkah


Baba Ghanouj

And all the dips were served with Turkish bread



Seriously, the food was DELICIOUS. Maybe it was because I was really hungry, but I actually think it was just because there was an abundance of deliciousness going around.

The olive oil is from Fouad's father's land, and is organic, hand-picked and cold pressed. The olive oil is quite mild and light, and it made me feel healthy just eating it. I had envisioned women wrapped in finely woven scarves dancing to a primal beat, luring you into the symphony of gorgeous flavours. This oil, for me, is a great carrier of flavours, and seemed to complement and augment the flavours of everything that I ate it with.

As the brunch was winding down, a gorgeous crate of ripe figs came out to play.



I decided to try the figs with the olive oil, and MAN WAS IT TASTY!



The oil carried the sweetness of the figs so well, and gave me a certain kind of creaminess that added luxury to the fresh fruitiness of the figs.

It makes me want to try all my fruit with olive oil.

Many thanks to Simon and Fouad for the invite and the event!! I so need the recipe for that Baba Ghanouj...

Streetdance 2 3D

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I love me a dance movie, always have. I don't know whether it was my repressed non-dancing childhood - being overweight and self-conscious does not make for a confident dancer - or my brief period of crazy DDR playing with my high school friends, but I do, regardless of whether I think there will be a great story, watch a dance movie. And I mean ANY dance movie.

By the way, if you're wondering why a food blog is writing about dance movies...well, there was a brief, embarrassing stint at hip hop class. There I said it. Don't ask any more because I refuse to talk about it. But I still love watching dancing!!! That, and this is also an entry to get tickets to watch Streetdance 2 3D (thank you Nuffnang!).

So anyway, this one's about ballet meeting hiphop (sounds kinda familiar). A street dance crew first loses their rehearsal space, and ends up getting space at a ballet studio, even though they have to include ballet dances in their routine. There is animosity from both ends of the camp, but eventually the love for dance wins out and there are AWESOME DANCE SCENES.



At least, we assume. To be honest I'm not approaching this movie from a plot perspective. We all know that when we go to watch a dance movie it's not for the plot, it's for the awesome camera work and choreography. We all know that no one is going to suddenly break out into perfectly rehearsed routines, but we believe it still, because we are so ridiculously entertained.

And I love being ridiculously entertained.

See StreetDance 2 (3D) at your nearest Hoyts. Mine is Broadway! Don’t forget to check out their Xtremescreen, La Premiere and IMAX!” Streetdance 2 (3D) opens in Australia April 19th, 2012

Unleashing the Quiche!

Quiche was first introduced to me in more or less the following words:

Leftover pie

And I can understand where it's coming from - it's a very economical way to use up leftover ingredients...provided you have spare pastry and spare dairy (read: cream) lying around. After making my favourite pastry recipe at the moment, I've been on a quiche bend, meaning that Sean and I have plenty of quick breakfasts that we can grab on the way to work! Happiness all around.

I guess the idea is that you can fill a quiche with pretty much anything you like - I always feel like if you like the combination, who's to judge? (I do have a rant about that, but more about it later) There are also many different quiche mixes on the net, but I'll just share what I use and just feel free to mix and match!

Quiche Mix
4 eggs
400g pure cream
50g milk
pinch of salt

Preheat 165C.

Line 12 muffin tins with pastry.

For this lot, I filled the quiche with leftover spinach, cream cheese, bacon, and then thoroughly mixed up the eggs, cream and salt and pour it over the filling till 1/2 mm from the top of the pastry.

Bake till the tops are brown.

Let cool on a cooling rack, and then upend the tray onto a cookie sheet.



I find that if you tip it out while it's too warm, there is some warping in the shape of the mini-quiches. But it's still cute! And your tummy won't know what shape it's in. ;)

Meanwhile, I've got some leftover pastry that I'm not sure what to do with. Any ideas?

Best Savoury Pastry Ever

I have always been afraid of pastry. There was just something about it - can't overwork it, must rest it, it has to be as chilled as possible, don't add too much flour...

Over the years I've been given plenty of advice when it came to making pastry, and so my mind just freaks out whenever I even start researching making my own. Store-bought had always been enough.

Well, after working at Victor Churchill, I started tasting amazing pastries, and so now I can't go back to store-bought.

I had to bite the bullet and start making my own pastry. I knew a really good recipe that I wanted to make at home, and it seemed simple enough. There was a slight problem, though.

I mis-read the recipe.

When I had my first attempt, I had added FIVE TIMES THE AMOUNT OF BUTTER. It was also a 30C afternoon, and I thought that the reason that my pastry was falling apart on me was because it was way hot and there was quite a bit of butter. More butter than flour. It really should have tipped me off that my pastry couldn't even be rolled out properly and had to be squished into the muffin trays, but for some reason, I attributed it all to the heat.

The result?

The most amazing, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth pastry that I've ever eaten. But I would never wish that making that pastry on to anyone. I'm not quite sure that the most amazing pastry was worth the swearing, struggling and wishing I had frozen fingers, but I do know that it is worth using more butter than the recipe intended.

Oh, you do need a standing mixer.

And so I present to you:

The Best Savoury Pastry

300g cold butter (salted), cubed
333g flour
1 egg
50g water

Using the paddle attachment (I only had the mixing attachment and the dough attachment, so I used the mixing attachment) combine the flour, butter and egg till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Then (if you're using the mixing attachment, switch now to the dough hooks) add the water and mix till completely combined. Cover in cling wrap and rest in the fridge overnight.



*******************

Simple, right? The tricky part is really the rolling out - you have to make sure that you don't handle the dough too much. What I like to do is separate the dough into three portions and work one portion at a time. Once you start feeling that the butter in the dough is starting to melt, then put it back in the fridge wrapped in clingfilm and work on the other portions. Try to sprinkle on only just enough flour to prevent it from sticking, because the more flour you add the less buttery the pastry is going to taste. And it's pretty darn buttery.

I hope this simple recipe helps you get over your fear (if you had any) of pastry like it helped me.

Let me know how it turns out!