Charlotte's at the Grand, Broken Hill

We've been busy the past few Sundays either lazing about at home or going out for short trips out of town, so we hadn't had a chance to explore Broken Hill on Sunday. Not that there's anything exciting- we already knew it, but the town is ridiculously quiet on a Sunday morning, with every shop on the main street shut except for two cafes, the newsagents and a couple of small stores.

And we thought Saturday was quiet!

Mocha ($5)

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Orange Chicken

Having worked in a Chinese restaurant for almost 4 years, I can't say that Westernised Asian food is my favourite cuisine. Although anything but authentic, our restaurant does everything it does well so I'd choose anything else over anything in the same category as sweet and sour pork, honey chicken and mongolian lamb any day.

But there is one dish that we don't do and it's orange chicken (well actually there's more than one,  but let's not go into the details.....), so I still enjoy it enough to want to attempt this at home.

Whereas the lemon sauce for lemon chicken in Chinese restaurants is mostly made of sugar, water and lemon essence, I prefer my homemade orange sauce to be made of fresh orange juice- it's so sweet it doesn't make too much of a difference, but there is a freshness that comes through.

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Thom, Dick and Harry's, Broken Hill

In our quest to try all the restaurants and cafes there are in Broken Hill,  we end up at Thom, Dick and Harry's on the weekend, which we've heard good tings about. It's a cute little shop which is a bit of everything- homewares store, florist, gourmet grocer and cafe.

We'd been in the weekend before, browsing their homewares and did notice their menu seemed quite enticing so we were quite excited to try the little cafe up the back. There's not much seating- two tables at the back, a larger high table up the front and a couple outside though no one wants to sit outside in the current cold weather!

Mocha (Lge $4.5)

Cold weather calls for warm drinks, so I order a large mocha. Interesting, they tell us to give it a good stir before drinking, which we realise is because the chocolate powder has not been completely dissolved yet. I can't say I was too fond of this coffee- tastewise it was alright, but the froth was not quite fine enough for my liking.

Scrambled Eggs With Chorizo ($14.90)

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The Caff, Broken Hill

 Mocha (large, $4.5)

We've been told that most of the food in Broken Hill is pretty good- the reason being that the town is so small that anything that isn't can't last for too long. We haven't been here for long, but we have tried three restaurants/cafes so far and are yet to find one we don't like.

Right across from Broken Hill hospital, where we are based for my placement is The Caff, which we'd been hearing rave reviews about since the day we got here. So naturally, we had to make time for a visit to check it out.

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Travel | Taipei: Yongkang Street and Nearby Eats

When we visited Taipei, we were lucky enough to have the guidance of a friend who recommended us to book a hotel near Yongkang street as it would be much more convenient to get to the foodie destinations.

Best advice ever!

We literally stayed across the road from the original Din Tai Fung which we'd loved to have tried, but the queues were never ending and the fact that there's a billion branches everywhere else sort of made it less exciting (I know the original one is different, but still!). There's plenty of similar restaurants around the area, and we were recommended this one from our taxi driver who noted that the xiao long bao was very good (we later find out that their website is named thebestxiaolongbao.com!).

Hangzhou Soup Dumplings 杭州小籠湯包 

Hot and Sour Soup

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Creamy Coconut Peanut Curry Noodles

This recipe was originally supposed to be for a Creamy Coconut Peanut Curry Dressing recipe, but winter is not the perfect time for salads, so I heated it up and served it with noodles instead. 

And it worked surprisingly well!

I'd gotten into a bit of a system where I pre-made most of my week's lunches on Sunday so I wouldn't have to worry about it during the week, so I'd actually made this dressing weeks in advance, kept it in the freezer and forgot about it until it fell out one day and the container broke. 

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The Silly Goat, Broken Hill

The Silly Goat is a curious name for a cafe, but it makes a little more sense when you take a seat a see the book. Not that it tells you much more about why the cafe was named so, but at least it doesn't sound so random anymore! ;)

I'm in Broken Hill for a 6 week placement for uni, so we thought we'd put the weekend to good use an explore the town. The original plan was to visit the markets, but it got rained out and closed early, so we stopped by The Silly Goat, one of the town's most popular cafes, for brunch instead.

Hot Chocolate (S$3.8)

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