Odd Things I saw - Hello Kitty Bun Bun

I love eating bun buns, especially the custard filling ones. When I was browsing the internet, I came across this cute hello kitty bun bun! I think it is so adorable and creative. I love hello kitty LOL!

As you can see, the hello kitty bun bun in the marketing poster is a lot more attractive and appealing than what it really looks like. But I am sure it tastes delicious.

Happy eating everyone!

Odd Things I saw – Buddha pear

If you are craving for fruit, why not try a Buddha pear? These unique pears were created by Gao Xianzhang, a Chinese farmer.

Gao spent 6 years perfecting the design of the Buddha mould for the pears. The facial details of the Buddha pear are intriguing. You can see eyes, nose and a mona lisa smile.

These pears cost around 10AUD each. These pears have been selling quickly in his village.

'People seem to think they are cute or lucky and will buy them as soon as they're off the tree,' Gao explained.

Looking at the Buddha pears gives me a peaceful and happy feeling.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama on Masterchef this Sunday

Aussie TV Show Masterchef, will have a very special guest appearing on this Sunday's episode - His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama recently visited Australia for his tour. His schedule was packed with interviews, seminars, appearances. He found some time to be a guest on the popular show Masterchef. The episode was filmed last month, will air this Sunday 10.

In the episode, the 7 finalist prepare a special meal for the Dalai Lama.

It is a huge honour to have the opportunity to cook for the Dalai Lama - I wonder how the contestants will handle the pressure?

It is well known that monks are vegetarian. What original dishes will they serve the Dalai Lama.

Another big question is, what is the Dalai Lama like as a food critic?

Find out by tuning in this Sunday 7:30pm, Channel 10

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My Favourite Restaurants in Melbourne

For the best sushi in town, I recommend this sushi restaurant in South Yarra:

Uta Sushi Bar
31 Chambers Street, South Yarra VIC 3141



Everytime I think of this place, my mouth waters. They make the best california rolls on earth! It contains salmon, crap, cucumber, carrot, avocado, jap mayo... it's tastes devine! The fish is delivered fresh each morning, so you can expect the sashimi to melt in to your mouth.

I highly recommend the california rolls, sashimi, tamago. They are my personal favourites. All the sushi they make is delicious.

I have recommended this place to a lot of my friends, and they all agree that this is the best sushi in Melbourne.

They added 2 hot dishes to the menu: unagi (eel) on rice, seafood udon noodles. I was curious about these new additions to the menu, so I tried the udon noodles. It was quite underwhelming. I have a feeling that it was instant udon noodles. This place specialises in cold food, there isn't a hot stove on all day. I guess you can't expect a fantastic hot meal if the chef isn't working next to the stove.

But do try the sushi! It's brilliant.


The Best Korean BBQ Restuarant:

Sut Korean BBQ
Address: 970-972 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill VIC
Phone: (03) 9899 5900

Why is this place my fave? They cook the meat on coal. mmmm.... delicious. You know, when I went to Korea last year, I ate Kbbq almost everyday. You can imagine that when I returned home to Melbourne, I was sickkkk of it. I couldn't eat kbbq for five months. This was where I went to eat after my korea trip. It's really delicious. Because it was cooked on coal, it took a bit longer. There was six of us so we were waiting a while for the meat to get cooked. lol. If you love kbbq, you must check out this place too.

Odd Things I saw - Sexy cabbage ladies artwork

Exotic cabbage artwork -110610 by CherriiPOP





While I was surfing the net this week, I came across these cool artworks by Chinese artist Ju Duoqi. She makes sculptures entirely out of Chinese cabbage. The sculptures are of women in sexy and classy poses. She named this project ‘The fantasies of chinese cabbage’.

The use of cabbage in the sculptures is quite amazing.I will never look at a Chinese cabbage the same.

Awesome pictures of Flowery Buns for the Qingming Festival April 2011

These are the most prettiest buns I have ever seen, it's making me seriously hungry. These woman from Shanxi Province, China are making these 'flowery buns' to pay tribute to ancestors during the Qingming festival.

Utada on Twitter this week

Utada fans! Are you guys following her on twitter? She is a total twitter bug and she tweeted some interesting things this week. Last week on the show I mentioned that in addition to the release of her Singles Collection Volume 2, a best of English album will also be released. All her hit English songs will be released in a brand new album. Utada tweeted about this, unlike other artists that plug their albums Utada wrote:

The release of "Utada the best" is entirely against my will. I wish that my fans won't have to buy it. There's no new material in it. Monday, October 25, 2010 2:02:07 AM via web

It’s interesting that Utada doesn’t get the final say on this because she has a lot of control over her music career. I think her record label wants her to release it because she is going on an indefinite break from the music industry at the end of the year, so it would be meaningful if she would also release the best of English album.

Another interesting tweet she wrote during the week was:

Philippines, Finland, Vietnam, Austria, Germany, my my! I need to travel more! BTW Vietnamese is my fave Asian cuisine after Japanese :) Sunday, October 24, 2010 9:30:26 PM via web

It’s so cool to know that she enjoys Vietnamese food! I love Vietnamese food too well I am bias because I’m Vietnamese. Vietnamese food is fresh of full of flavour. My second favourite cuisine would probably be Japanese because I love sushi and sashimi a lot.

Kimchi Crisis

Kimchi is a staple vegetable in the Korean diet and it’s always eaten with every meal. Koreans have a very spicy palette, they love chilli so much they put a huge amount of it in their cooking. I remember the first time I ate Korean food, it was so hot it felt like smoke was coming out of my ears. The kimchi side dish is spicy too, it contains lots of chilli as well but it is quite tasty.


Photo of a typical meal I ate in Korea. Look at all the little side dishes! This is for LUNCH!!!

The traditional kimchi making season has come under threat due to shortage of fresh vegetables! The shortage was caused by unusually heavy rainfall for the past few months. That has resulted in cabbage prices to skyrocket to 10,000 won (10AUD) per napa cabbage, which is four times the normal price.

The prices of other important ingredients in Korean diets like radish and garlic are also experiencing inflation.

Kimchi manufacturers have already raised the prices of their products. Even restaurants have started to charge for kimchi, which is usually a complementary dish in Korean meals.

The traditional kimchi making season occurs at the end of fall. Families will busily make kimchi for the winter. However, due to soaring vegetable prices it is expected to hit the nation right at the hip pocket.

A Korean restaurant owner said, “I’m not sure if I should start to charge kimchi or exclude it from the side dishes. I have never experienced such a shortage of cabbage in my ten years as a chef running this restaurant.”

Many housewives have decided to skip kimchi making season altogether due to the inflated prices.

The government have taken action due to this huge concern; they will lower taxes on some of the vegetables and import 150 tonnes of fresh vegetables from China. These actions will help stabilise consumer prices after they hit a 17 month high in September.

Ref: Korean Herald

Australia Iron chefs have been found

Last week I told you guys that they were making Iron Chef Australia! Well, yesterday they announced who the Iron Chefs are. They are (drumroll please) Guy Grossi, Neil Perry and Guillaume Brahimi. I think they will each specialise in a cuisine, like french, italian. I don't think any of them specialise in Japanese or Chinese so will the third cuisine be Australian? Will they be wearing bright colorful silk chef clothing? I'm anxious to find out who the host is, I hope he is comedic and flamboyant like the Japanese Host! It adds more entertainment. Iron Chef Australia will air on Channel 7 but it hasn't been announced when. Keep an eye out for it.

Aussie Iron Chef is coming!

Iron chef, the phenomenal Japanese cooking show where two famous chefs battle it out in kitchen stadium to win the title of Iron Chef, is getting an Australian make-over. Casting has begun for Aussie version of Iron chef. The team behind Iron Chef Australia 'Shine' also produced the ratings winner Masterchef. Shine are also hoping for a runaway hit with Aussie Iron Chef. They have a very tight time frame to find their iron chefs because filming of the series is scheduled to begin next month in Melbourne. The format will be loyal to the original where two chefs battle it out in kitchen stadium, making dishes based on the unveiled ingredient. Their dishes are then judged by a panel of three celebrities.

The original Japanese series aired between 1993-99. A staggering 300 cooking battles were filmed in kitchen stadium. America and Britain have also made their own versions of the show. The original Iron chef currently airs weekly on SBS Saturday nights at 8:30. I'm a huge fan of Iron chef because it's such great entertainment! It's incredible watching them come up with original dishes on the spot then race around the kitchen to finish their inventions in one hour. What I love about the Japanese show is the host's flamboyant fashion sense. He wears bedazzled matador jackets and funky coats. The other reason I love the show is the animated english dubbing. All the voice actors are so enthusiastic and entertaining, it's fabulous! It’s like they are dubbing a kung fu show or anime because it’s so lively and comical. I've watched the American Version of Iron Chef and I didn't enjoy it as much as the Original because it didn't have a fancy dressed host or funny english dubbing. I'm not sure how the Aussie version will be, will it be a ratings giant like masterchef? We'll have to wait and see.