The mushroom faze

I always find myself fixated over particular foods, or go through a food faze where I will eat the same food for weeks on end. This time I ate the same food for at least a month. My fixation was 'Mushrooms'... The mushroom faze...

Some people have fixations over men, cars, midgets or anything that really tickles your fancy. However my fixation is over foods.

From oyster king mushrooms to shitake mushrooms I incorporated the mushroom into every meal.I guess when you feel passionate and fixated over something, you will do anything to get it! I guess that is all apart of human nature, and the human mind demonstrating the power of determination!

From all the mushroom dishes I had in the month, the stand out was the Zilver Restaurant's 'Mushroom dumpling'. My word, this dumpling is a piece of work! I ate a few servings of the 'Mushroom dumpling' at least 3 times a week.

What's so good about these mushroom dumplings?

The infusion of the mushroom dumpling is simply incredible, a nice soft, luscious dumpling casing to bite into and once you delve into your first bite, not only will you taste the flavours of oyster mushroom, garlic and coriander, but the aroma of the dumpling will hit you like a love drug. Dip the dumpling into a a bit of chili sauce and there you have perfect chemistry!

If you are going through a mushroom faze, please ensure you feed it with a mushroom dumpling!

A New Era - 2011

It has been at least 3 months since I last updated 'Grumbling Tummy'.

I have not been in hiding, however I was busy dealing with my own personal challenges and choose to put a hold on 'Grumbling Tummy'.

With a fresh start to 2011 and the end to a rough year being 2010, I promise to devote my full attention to writing more about food. I have even bought myself a new gastronomical diary for 2011 and have started booking in restaurants to taste and review for the year.

The real adventure begins now, a new era...

Bek's Birthday lunch at Chat Thai in Haymarket

A birthday is always a good excuse to go out for a good meal, even in your lunch hour. Lucky for me, I work in the Haymarket area of the Sydney CBD were there is an abundance of good inexpensive restaurants, and Chat Thai being one of them.

Every time I go to Chat Thai I choose the Beef Pad Kee Mao, guaranteed satisfaction! Well, only if you really like a good chilli kick, you will certainly appreciate Chat Thai’s Pad Kee Mao. Aside from the wonderful Pad Kee Mao there are many other stand dishes.

For lunch we choose the fresh spring rolls with smoked fish sausage, shredded poached chicken, cucumbers and shallots wrapped in the fresh rice paper roll and dressed with a sweet tamarind sauce, Pork Lad Na with thick rice noodles topped with Chinese broccoli, carrots and mushrooms in gravy of light soy and yellow bean sauce, Beef Khao Grapao spicy stir fry of ground meat with holy basil, fresh chilli and green beans on rice with a fried egg and the Chicken version of the Khao Grapao.

All the dishes were lovely and had a well balanced flavour especially the Pork Lad Na I would choose this again, although the portion size could be bigger. The stand out dish from the above would have to be the Chicken Khao Grapao, which had a nice balance of authentic Thai flavours and to add to that a good solid chilli kick. However the let down of the lunch was the Beef Khao Grapao, an over power of chilli that killed my tastebuds and sent be straight for the milk. Flavours should flatter each other not condemn! I hope that the overuse of chilli was just a simple mistake, as I would definitely go back.

Overall I consider Chat Thai as one of the better Thai restaurants you would find in Sydney. The bonus is it’s inexpensive!

Grumbling tummy rates this as 7.82 out of 10

Evolution of Grumbling Tummy

I will start this story as a newborn. Born into the world as a heavy 9.3-pound child my passion for food began at a very young age. Not that I have the faintest memory of my early childhood days, however I can only rely on the memoirs of my mother. Can you imagine a toddler eating and falling asleep at the same time, but still eating? Can you imagine a child eating glue and lipstick, because she feels like a light snack? Would you consider these actions of a child as pig like? Or simply just a devotee to taste, texture, infusions and foods. Well that’s me! I simply love food.

Growing up in my adolescent times, I was always surrounded by people of different cultures, which has enabled me to learn about a multitude of cultural backgrounds. One of the most significant attributes of every culture in the world would be their food. From Italian and Turkish to Chinese and Spanish cuisines, I developed a strong knack for all the different flavours of the world.

By the time I was old enough to move out of home I had to step up my game and learn how to cook. I guess from my previous experiences and living a life surrounded with many infusions from different cultures I had developed an innate ability to cook. I discovered this instinctive ability to cook without using recipes. Instead I used intuition and senses. I felt like I had discovered a sixth sense. My sixth sense was simply food.

All in all, I simply can’t resist food. I have no control or limits when it relates to food. It is my mission to share with you all my passion for anything associated with food, as this truly makes me happy!

I am grumbling tummy!