Anchor Silver Top

Anchor Silver Top is a non-homogenised full cream milk with a creamy layer on the top.

There have been studies done which suggest non-homogenised milk is a healthier choice compared to homogenised milk.

(There are many studies and literature, related to the topic, which are readily available on the world wide web if anyone is interested in finding out more.)

Ah~~ Takes one back to the good old days when milk wasn’t homogenised~~~

**Note: The photo was taken awhile ago, hence the printed expiry date is outdated.

If you look carefully, you can already see the layer of creamy goodness on the top

Make sure you shake the container well, if you don’t like the layer of  cream.

LOL!! Doesn’t look very appetizing.

However, personally I do prefer the taste of non-homogenised full cream milk~~

Taste: 4.5/5

The milk tastes somewhat sweeter to me than homogenised milk, and the creamy bits have texture like cream cheese~~ Mmmmm~~~~~

Cost: 4/5

The price is NZ$4.85 for a 2 Litre container.

Availability: 5/5

I get mine from Pak’nSave.

Overall Mark: 4.5/5

Comment: Worth giving it a try if you haven’t had it before!!

Red Elephant Thai Restaurant

We had our Christmas celebration dinner at Red Elephant Thai Restaurant on 195 Khyber Pass Road in Newmarket (Auckland).

The presentation in the restaurant was very good. Everything looked clean and tidy.

We ordered Banquet Menu 2.

First up we enjoyed some assorted appetizers.

Each one of them was wonderfully fried and very crispy~~

The Tom Yam Goong Soup came next.

Spicy Prawn Soup seasonsed with Lime Juice garnished with Hot Chilli, Lemon Grass & Mushroom.

The mushroom and prawn pieces were very sizable!

The main course consisted of five different main dishes.

Kaeng Panaeng – Red Curry of sautéed Beef with Sweet Basil & Coconut Milk, Gai Ob Pu Kao Fai – Sizzling Platter of Baked Whole Chicken marinated in Thai Herbs served with Sweet Chilli Sauce flambéed with Brandy, Pla Krapong Rad Prik – Whole Crispy Snapper with Hot Chilli Sauce, Goong Tod Kratiem Prik Thai – Sautéed Prawns & Calamari with Garlic & Peppers, Pad Pak Look Chin Pla – Pan Fried Mixed Vegetables with Fishballs.

This flamming baby chicken a.k.a. Gai Ob Pu Kao Fai deserves an honourable mention.

It came out engulfed in flames, the view was quite spectacular, however the flames had dampened down by the time it reached the table.

If you look carefully you can still see the bit of orange flame on the top of the chicken~~

My favourite part of a meal is the dessert which was

Hot Banana Fritter served with Coconut Milk Ice Cream.

It was DELICIOUS!!

For Coffee I ordered a Latte, which was very good as well.

Marks: 

Taste: 4.5/5

Price: 4.5/5

Service: 5/5

Overall Mark: 4.7/5

The service was excellent and the restaurant has high hygiene standards, which could be noted by seeing serving staff using a towel, which acts as protection against hand contamination, when handing out clean new plates.

I had a great experience at the restaurant with my family.

Highly recommended!

Family Dinner~~

I love a good family dinner!!

Especially after a fun day of shopping~~

We went to a Chinese Seafood Restaurant called Golden Jade. They have a well recommended dish called 全家福 which rougly translates to “The complete happy family”.

Here are some photos of the dishes we had tonight:

Starter Soup with Pork chop and Epiphyllum Flower

The Epiphyllum flower gives the soup a thick and pleasantly mucousy taste. I know! I KNOW!! My description of the soup doesn’t sound very appetizing~~ It actually tastes quite similar to Okra (Ladyfinger) which is a key ingredient in gumbo~~~

Their Black Pepper Beef was very agreeable~~ It had the right amout of savoury taste and sweetness. The beef actually tasted like beef!! For some reason (in recent years) a lot of the beef in stir fried dishes from Chinese restaurants taste like they have been drowned in corn flour/starch before being cooked, resulting in the meat tasting very slippery and gummy in texture.

The sweet and sour chicken was very enjoyable as well. The chicken came in very big, and generous pieces.

Finally! 全家福 ”The complete happy family” arrived!! What a suiting dish name for our wonderful family get together~~

The dish had Pāua (Abalone), Sea Cucumber, Prawns, Scallops, smoked Oysters, and Crispy Pork Belly (The black sheep of the “family”?? For not being a seafood).

Hope I haven’t missed anything out.. OH! And giant Chinese mushrooms~~

Pāua!!

Sea Cucumber!!

Whittaker’s Coconut Slab

Hello everyone!

Finally!! My first proper food review in a long long time!!

Whittaker’s toasted coconut chocolate slabs~~

I had never tried this flavour from them before,  and since I am a big fan of Cadbury’s Coconut Rough, I decided to give it a go.

Taste: 4.5/5

Mmmmm~~ The creamy milk chocolate just melt in the mouth, and I really like the texture of the toasted coconut bits!

To be honest, I find its taste to be very similar to Cadbury’s Coconut Rough.

Cost: 4/5

The price for one packet ranges between NZ$3 to $4.

Each packet contains 12 mini slabs, with a total net weight of 180g. (Each mini slab weighs 15g)

It would definitely have been cheaper to purchase the 250g block, which usually cost between NZ$3.50 – $4.50, but I couldn’t find any Whittaker’s Coconut Block on the shelf~~ 

Availability: 5/5

They are pretty much available in any New Zealand shop which sells food products!

Overall Mark: 4.5/5

Comment: It is definitely a must try if you are a fan of chocolate and/or coconut!!

Food exchange programme *UPDATE*

Hi everyone!

Here is a list of some food products I wanted to try at the time, and guess what! I have managed to source and try everything listed!!

YAY!!

Now, I just have to come up with a new list!

Just a quick update!

Good news everyone!! Bo Peep is back by popular demand!!!

AWESOME!!!!!

Making of Blueberry Tea Cake~~

TA DA!! Blueberry Tea Cake!!!! XD

The smell of Cinnamon filled the house while I baked these delicious cakes~~

The recipe was kindly shared by a friend.

Thank you very much DrinkingStar!!

Here are some photos of the baking process:

Mmmmmmm~~~~~

Pinky pink~~ (^-^)

I thought it was my imagination at first, but it does seem like many of the food packages arrived in the parcel (from Japan) are more or less pink~~

Look at all the pinky goodness!! I can’t wait to try them all!!!!! (^-^)

There are even some pink cookies with chocolate chips!! I’ve never had pink cookies before!!!!!

Indian sweet – Laddu with Vark~~

A box of Indian sweets my friend kindly gave to me. (^-^)

Laddu or Laddoo is a ball-shaped dessert popular in South Asian countries.

 My friend specifically advised that I don’t try picking off the Vark, which is the thin layer of silver foil covering the sweet.

It was the first time I’ve ever come across Vark, therefore, I did some research and found it is made of pure silver and is edible since the elemental silver used is in such minute amount.

The purpose of Vark is to decorate and make the desserts look wonderfully beautiful~~

Gorgeously decorated with vark, and bright colours (^-^)

Mmmmm~~ and they taste deliciously gorgeous too!! =D

Japanese Goodies Part 2 – Bourbon strawberry hard candy!

In my humble opinion, I think Japan makes some of the most awesome hard candies!!!!! XD

 

Yummy strawberry candy~~

I am not quite sure what the Japanese writing “60 different types” on the top right corner means :O

Flavours listed from top to bottom: Soda strawberry, Milk strawberry, Syrup strawberry, Fresh strawberry. *****DIY Japanese translation. Please let me know if I got any of it wrong!*****

Comes in mini packs, each containing two candies~~ And as expected they taste absolutely AWESOME!!!!! XD