Flowers in more than one way + SQUID

So the festivities of good eating have continued at both home and out of the home.

On Christmas day my Grandmother gave us some zuchini flowers which can be used to make a form of yimista - or rice stuffed vegetables, or flowers in this case. She also gave us a marrow.

These were all grown in my grandfathers moonee ponds backyard. NOW that is organic.

On saturday my mum set to work making the stuffed zuchini flowers or loulouthia as they are called in greek.

You can liken the rice mixture on the inside to the rice mixture found in dolmathes which are the vine leaves stuff with rice.

most vegetables can be stuffed so long as they are relatively cavernous when hollowed out. The flowers however are slightly more fiddly but can be done easily if care is taken.

These are the end products of my mothers labour and I must say - fine job MUMMY!

The inside was soft and the flavour was delicate but it danced around my mouth like a family gathering with all the drama and excitement you love about them.

Since the flavour is not particularly heavy and the flowers are especially quite bite size, it is very easy to finish an entire serving of them. But remember folks, it's rice and too much rice isn't good for you. Moderation is the key to enjoying food.

The stuffed marrow would be something you would serve as a more main meal if you were to have this as the centre piece of a dinner party.

It is more satisfying and accompanied with some kind of meat and a nice salad would be perfect.

Greek style yoghurt is a must have when eating these lovely foods. A good slathering of greek yoghurt ontop of the marrow or simply dipping the loulouthia into some yoghurt on your plate is refreshing and makes this meal pleasingly appropriate for summer.

Speaking of summer, my family and I went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday which is always a wonderful trip on a summers day. Especially recently from all the rain we have recieved, the gardens are lush and the grass is greener than I have seen it in years. Truly picturesque!

Before trecking through the gardens we stopped off at the observatory cafe which is near the main entrance, turn left, walk past the children's garden and I'm pretty sure it is the older conservatory building - don't quote me on that though.

the way the cafe is set out and functions isn't my favourite method of ordering usually because it doesn't work well - BUT in this case it was pretty decent. It was quick, efficient, and you had plenty of time deciding on what you wanted to eat, drink etc.

I had mineral water and a calamari salad because I wanted something light but I needed some meat to sustain me during my walk around the gardens.

I liked the look of this and I'd hope you'd agree with me in thinking it looks satisfying. I was especially pleased with the lemon wedge - because lemon goes hand in hand with calamari on most occasions. The lovely waiter always cracked some pepper on for me.

Cracked people trumps powdered pepper all the way. IF you have the choice - always choose cracked pepper over powdered shit. It clumps. It's disgusting.

Anyway so moment of truth - the calamari, how would it be? It can often be tough and hard to eat when not cooked properly. WELL I was surprised - SO TENDER, beautiful!

The batter was light and delicately flavoured. and something else I especially enjoyed was the dressing on the salad was the perfect amount for its type. As you can see it was a kind of ranch dressing - and the salad isn't drenched in it. They were not stingy either. It was a moderate amount. and with something like ranch - you need moderation. Personally I'm slightly lactose intolerant so too much ranch would send me to the toilet instantly and keep me gassy for hours. But this was just enough.

I was genuinely surprised with the Observatory Cafe located in the botanical gardens. And while the prices are a tad above average - The salad was $16.90, I felt that because the salad was good, the ambience of the cafe was very fine - the price was perfectly justified. I'm usually quite suss about cafes and restaurants in parks/zoos and places of 'general' family amusement because they are often over priced and the food is shit. Well Observatory Cafe, you have pleased me.

Le Sandwhich

Ah the sandwhich, so easy to get right, and so easy to get wrong.

I have had many sandwich experiences in my life, from the humble spring onion sandwich of primary school years to the elaborately filled sandwiches that country towns are sometimes famed for. Just so you know the spring onion sandwich was a fetish of my own that I made my mum make for me - it was all good until a girl stepped on my sandwich and told me it was still okay to eat. I threw up everywhere because the feeling of grit makes me gag.

Anyway, so a few months back my Older Brother told me about an amazing sandwich he had eaten. Thick moist chicken breast, whole egg mayonnaise (home made), and good bread. I was very keen to try it - but being me, it took me about 5 months (possibly more) to actually go there.

So last week, fresh from Japan, my fellow foodie Steph and I checked out:

Choix Creperie Cafe

Liberty La, top end of Collins St, near Southern Cross Station.

Despite being hidden away in a lane, it was pretty easy to find and we were greeted with what my brother warned me as "quick humour", they're funny people for sure! The service is good, which is a good sign for me.

We saw the sandwhiches sitting there in the window and they looked awesome!

$8.90 which is fairly reasonable.

Steph told me she had heard the crepes were good but we stuck to the sandwich that day.

I ordered a Soy Latte with mine. The coffee was okay, it wasnt bad, it wasnt great - but it was fine. And my theory tends to be that very few places that can have good coffee, good food, good service and good atmosphere/environment. This place ticked three of those boxes so I'm not complaining. Just get a juice or something if you're really picky about coffee.

SO the sandwich - it came!

There she is! beautifully done, not artificially cut into a square shape, thick but not too thick and generous with the meat!

There was also some kind of almond scattered throughout which was a really awesome touch. The mayonnaise was JUST AMAZING. LIKE WOW! I am a sucker for mayonnaise so when I taste a good one, I'm impressed!

The chicken was perfect, THICK MOIST and cooked. You need to always check your chicken is cooked because you will get sick and probably die.

I think you all know the verdict. This sandwich was a great way to swap stories of Japan and Morocco/Paris/New Zealand with my friend Steph. Very comfortable and well priced.

CHECK IT OUT!

First Food

So I've decided to record my numerous food exploits for whoever wishes to read about them.

I have alot of food experiences, as most people should - minimum three per day.

Sometimes I might have five of so, but that's not often because as much as I'd like to think I could eat what I wish as many times as I like - I'm very health concious so everything in moderation.

Speaking of moderation or lack there of, yesterday was Christmas and that is the one day moderation flies spectacularly out of the window and smashes its jaw on the ground - only to be rushed to the hospital and nursed until the next day when it may/may not return to those who cast it away.

Yesterday I ate a lot and being Greek it can't be helped. You've heard it all before.

So the day basically started with a light meal in preparation for the two feasts i'd be consuming later on.

I had my usual green tea, some panatone and also some french toast with just a small helping of jam.

I've never usually had jam on my french toast, but while I was in Japan a friend of mine made it for me that way, and it was pretty darn delicious. Egg and Jam who would have thought such a marriage would work?

The panatone was quite good too - it's pretty stock standard in our house around christmas because my Dad's italian co worker always gives it to the coffee gang. This year there was uproar apparently because they all agreed not to get eachother anything. But of course the panatone still graced our kitchen. Oh people are funny - especially wogs, they never listen.

Do you want more meat?

No No I'm fine thanks.

*puts more meat on your plate*

I'll get you a panatone for christmas!

Oh no no please don't, we're not doing that this year...

Okay *gets panatone*

I'm not complaining though.

Anyway so we headed down to Frankston to my Godparents house and awaited the lamb.

They had an assortment of nibbles; dips, cheeses, salmon which was just amazing and other things. Please note the photos below.

Oh and the tzatsiki deserves a special mention because it was just so damn good. You basically can't go wrong with garlic, yoghurt, cucumber and other ingredients. I don't know who made it - but it was damn fine. Better than the store bought shit - by miles!

Anyway, so the lamb cooked and everything else came out - basically roasted vegetables, prawns, teropita (cheese pastries), tomato salad, lettuce salad and potato salad. It was perfect. Good harmonies happening. ASIDE from the prawn - they looked lovely, but seriously we had a fucking lamb - 2 kg of prawn is TOTALLY unneeded. I just don't mix seafood and lamb. But that's just me.

After all that we had some intermission before dessert - I don't know how I tried one of everything but I'm like that with dessert especially. You can't just not have some of the desserts - you need to sample everything even if its just a sample. For the day I made a yule log which turned out fairly well and was all gone by the end - which for me means success - especially when it hasn't been mashed around on people's plates to make it look like it's been eaten.

There was cheesecake (AMAZING), my yule log (delicate but rich), trifle (ACE), and assorted greek sweets which were all good and made by assorted grandparents.

After trying each one of these I had that feeling that I'd possibly over eaten - I thought, wow this might be the Christmas I actually die from a ruptured stomach/intestine. It didn't happen, I just shat for a while later on.

ANYWAY so I thought i'd kind of finished eating for the day, but no no that's silly. I still had my other Grandparents to visit in the evening in Moonee Ponds.

We all toyed with the idea that my yiayia would bring out her usual plate of cheeses, home made mayonaise, salads, potatos, some kind of meat and bread and god knows what else.

So we got there slightly recovered from the overeating that had taken place before.

AND she did it, she brought out everything we joked she would and more. So what did we do?

We ate it.

She also surprised us with oysters, prawns, chicken (the meat), pumpkin, grilled capsicum, and grilled eggplant.

It was all great. It really was. what I can say about this grandmother is that she is a mad woman, possibly a genius - she has her moments of brilliance in cooking (mayonaise, capsicum, eggplant) BUT she also has her moments of disaster. A truly good cook I think. Though my mother would disagree.

I also want to give special mention to her pickles (toursi), she just did coliflower this time, but it was good. really good, has that nice pickly tartness - but still delicate.

The headstone cheese she found was also really beautiful. Headstone cheese is the english name for the cheese that greek people eat quite often - it has a distinct saltiness to it similar to feta, but its quite dry. You should all go try it.

So yeah we ate alot, it was all good, and of course we had dessert again.

I had fridge finikia directly below and a piece of halva which was very good but quite syrupy so i found it a bit much after all the eating I'd done. Basically fridge finikia are like a biscuit which is soaked in milk and kept in the fridge and coated in coconut. They are different from the finikia soaked in syrup and coated with ground walnut.

That was my Christmas, I ate alot, I ate too much, but I don't regret it because it was all glorious food.

Don't expect posts this long with this much food aside from on easter and christmas.