BrimCC Organic Soup and Japanese Cafe

I got a new camera! Say hi to better quality photos, thanks to my wonderful, thoughtful boyfriend, who bought me a new camera to do my blog posts with. So photos in today’s post are taken by him, since I’m a little tech-illiterate, so I don’t actually know how to use it yet.

We arrived just before the office lunch rush, so we were lucky enough to get a seat. 10 minutes after seating down, the office workers started piling in and the tiny shop was quickly filled with people, even spilling onto the footpath. It was quite a sight.

I really like the idea of BrimCC. Organic, good quality ingredients and a simple-menu done well. I think, that’s their recipe for such a successful business. Now, this cute little shop specialises in Japanese curry and different soups, which makes it a perfect little stopover during the winter months. My boyfriend, doesn’t really like Japanese curry. Did I know this shop specialises in it before I dragged him here? Maybe.

It wasn’t a very cold day when we visited, so he didn’t really want a soup, so he went with the Yakitori don.

Yakitori don ($10.00)

When it arrived, I started feeling very guilty, not only did I bring him to a place that specialises in something he doesn’t really like, the serve was also on the small side. I knew by looking at it that it wasn’t going to be enough. I’m so sorry. Even though the serving size was small, but comparing with the rice this don had a lot of chicken in it. I would say it is about 2/3 chicken and 1/3 rice. I tried one of the chicken pieces. There were a few things I liked about it. Whenever I have Yakitori, it almost always is overcooked and charred beyond recognition, to the point of making me paranoid about all the carcinogens on it. BrimCC’s was quite tender, though still just a little overcooked for me. You could still taste the smokiness of the grill, without having to worry about cancer risks. What I didn’t like is how salty it was. For the amount of rice it came with, it was way too salty and I thought I was pretty adapted to my dad’s over-salted cooking.

Beef curry & rice ($9.00)

Of course, being a Japanese curry lover, I had to order curry. I was debating over the vegetarian or the beef curry, but decided with a bit more protein. This curry was by the textbook, it was simple yet perfection at the same time. The gravy was thick, made flavoursome with free-range chicken stock. I could easily push my spoon into the carrots and potatoes, which for me is the most enjoyable part of a curry. The plump, white rice grains juxtaposed against the rich curry gravy – one of life’s simple pleasures. It even comes with the cutest spoon!

I do have a problem with Japanese curries though. It is a really heavy dish for me, but cleverly BrimCC seems to have found the solution, because they offer half-curry&rice + salad/soup sets for $12.50. So I think the next time I go in, I will make sure to get that instead. I know I’ve already said this, but I just have to say it again.

Simple, done well!

Dessert Box

“Let’s go have sweets!” Now, who can say no to a suggestion like that?

So, 6 of us on a chilly Friday afternoon, headed off to Dessert Box on Lygon St. for a well-earned treat after a hard week at Uni.

We opened the menu with glee and got lost in all the glossy, tempting photos. So hard to choose! Everything promised an indulgent sweet fix. In the end, we picked three desserts to share.

First up is what dessert box is famous for. Their Taiwanese golden bricks. Which are basically sugar coated thick slices of soft sweet bread, baked until the outside is nice and crunchy.

Tiramisu Golden Bricks – Crispy honey toast with chocolate ganache topped with tiramisu gelato drizzled with coffee cream chantilly and a dusting of cocoa powder ($16.80)

The honey toast was crispy and sweet. I greedily grabbed one and soaked it into all the trimmings, I was glad to find that the coffee flavour really pushed through. Though, I have to say this is just a bit too sweet for me. One bite is nice, second bite is just sweet, sweet, sweet.

The Grand Fondue ($32.80)

So this is something I probably wouldn’t have ordered myself, just simply because I like to make my own chocolate ganache at home and just dip whatever I can find in it. However, I will stop being a party pooper and get on with describing it. Chocolate fondues at Dessert Box, comes in classic chocolate bases of dark, milk and white, but it also comes in a white chocolate creme brulee and a matcha (green tea) as well. For $32.8o they certainly give plenty of accompaniments. You get a fruit plate of banana, kiwi, orange, strawberry, apple and marshmallows (yes, marshmallow is really a fruit). A choice of 4 scoops of ice cream from the counter, we chose matcha, cookies & cream, berry forest and white chocolate & raspberry. The stand out flavour was matcha, it was beautifully creamy, yet earthy and fresh, strong with matcha, I wish there was more than one scoop. Though the rest of the gelato were not so great in quality. You also get a snack plate of waffle pieces, puff profiteroles, chocolate shortbread, blueberry mini muffins and chocolate brownies. If that isn’t enough already, you also get 3 dipping crumbles: peanut, Orea and wafers. What did I think of it? To put it concisely, I think they certainly give you enough food and variety for the price they charge, but the actual individual items themselves were mostly mediocre. However, if you are with friends it’s probably nice just for the novelty factor.

Caramel Apple Waffles ($13.95)

This was my favourite dessert of the day. Two generous waffles were covered with homemade stewed cinnamon apples then drizzled liberally with warm salted caramel, served with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. The apples were soft and sweet; the caramel warm and comforting, paired with the icy-cold vanilla ice-cream it was perfect.

I had a lovely afternoon winding down with friends, chatting and satisfying my sweet tooth. Even though, I think Dessert Box is average in quality, but they certainly do make it up with variety. Next time, I think I will try one of their many parfaits or just order a serve of caramel apple waffles again, all for myself!

Almond Tuiles

So when a side to your dessert disappears faster than your actual dessert, it tells you one of two things. One, maybe “the star of your show” is actually really bad. Or, two the side is absolutely amazing. I’m inclined to go with the second one (partially because I don’t want to admit defeat). Whatever the reason may be, my family gobbled this whole bowl down in less than 10 minutes!

In fact, I thought these tasted so nice that I brought them along to Uni for one of my friend’s birthday. She’s been asking me for the recipe and I promised to post it “soon” (soon being more than a month ago). Oops, sorry.

These tuiles are crispy, light, not overly sweet and basically you can substitute the almonds for anything that takes your fancy. Hazelnuts? Pistachios? Macadamias? Or for some indulgence why not add some cocoa powder into the batter to make it a little chocolatey?

The good thing is, the batter is super easy to whip up. I whipped up mine in less than 10 minutes. Though, the time consuming part is spreading these out paper-thin. I don’t have a palette knife, but a spoon dipped intermittently in water works just as well.

Original recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/14979/almond+tuiles, with minor modifications

Almond Tuiles

Ingredients:

• 2 eggwhites
• 1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
• 1/3 cup (50g) plain flour, sifted
• 50g unsalted butter, melted, cooled
• 2/3 cup (50g) flaked almonds

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Combine egg whites and caster sugar in a bowl. Add the flour and the cooled melted butter, and stir with a wooden spoon gently until smooth.
3. Using roughly 1 heaped teaspoon of batter for each tuile, spread the batter out thinly in a circular fashion using either a palette knife or a tablespoon dipped in water. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.
4. Bake the tuiles for 5 minutes or until lightly browned.
5. Leaving them as they are gives you a flat shape. If you wanted to fashion it into a bowl or get them to take on a slight curve then work quickly, lift the tuiles off the tray using a flat knife and press over the outside of a small greased bowl to form dish shapes or drape them on a greased rolling pin for them to take on a slight curve. Allow to cool until hardened.
6. Serve on their own with a dessert of your choice.

Note on storage: These can stay crisp for 3 days in an airtight container with some raw rice grains. Rice grains can act as a desiccant to absorb any moisture and help them to stay crisp. Make sure the tuiles are completely cooled before storing them.