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Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

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Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at  Black Star Pastry ).  Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond  dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,   almond  dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals. It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, f...
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Struggling September

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This month wasn’t a smooth month for me, as you can tell from my major delay in getting this out. I’m finding it so hard to keep up lately! I officially started working on SPSS this month. To be honest, I have never had a good relationship with statistics, and it has never really been my area of interest. I decided the best to go about it would be to remain optimistic, but this wasn’t always easy. There have been days when I felt confident after picking up a new skill, and there have been other days where I felt very lost and barely made any progress at all. But the good thing is that I submitted my systematic review paper. I know I won’t hear back for a long time, but at least it’s out of my hands for now. Hopefully, this will give me more time and energy to work on the statistics. In other news, we had an EMCR symposium in our building. I’m part of the organising committee so we needed to do lots of prep beforehand. While I wasn’t in charge of many things, I still found it h...
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Kale chips

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I've been thinking about making kale chips for a while now; it was one of those things I thought would be too complex. Normally, I use kale in a smoothie or a salad but I can never get through a whole bunch without it going yellow. Recently, I've had a go at making kale chips. It's actually not that difficult, but it's just very delicate. You need to have the right temperature and time setting. Otherwise, you end up with burnt or soggy chips (like I did for the first few times!) I've adapted this recipe from some recipe sites and personal experience :) Recipe is as follows- Ingredients 1 kale bunch Paprika Cayenne pepper Lemon pepper Sea salt 4 Tb Extra Virgin olive oil Method  Preheat oven to 150 (fan-forced) Remove stems from kale and tear leaves into bite sized pieces) Wash kale thoroughly Dry kale with a salad spinner (this step is important!)  In a bowl, mix olive oil and herbs/ spices (amount to your liking) Line tray with baking paper U...
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Oriented October

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Happy Halloween everyone! I was super late last month , so I wanted to redeem myself by getting my post out on time this month. This month has been a huge learning curve for me. It has been super busy and crazy, as usual. I spent most of it doing statistics, but the good news is I am starting to get the hang of it. I feel more comfortable doing the analyses now, and I have started keeping good notes of what I am doing so I can go back when needed. Besides statistics, I conducted a few focus groups with another friend and attended an UCL behaviour change workshop, both of which have been very helpful. There was also a sad happening this month which left me feeling down for a couple of days, but I am reluctant to write about here at this stage. I am trying not to think about it for now because I know I should be focusing on the positive things. Other than that, it has been a pretty good mix of quantitative and qualitative work. In other news, I went to Parramatta Lanes and made ...
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Parramatta Lanes

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I heard a lot about Parra Lanes last year so I thought I'd make a time to see out this year. At first, we had a lot of trouble finding out where we needed to go. I've heard Parra Lane gets spread across over multiple stations to distribute the crowd. However, the problem was that the places aren't always easy to find. After walking around for some time, we managed to get hold of a map from a security staff. My main reason for coming was to try some knafeh; I've heard so much about this dessert from people who came last year. But we realised this particular shop was furthest out from our location. First stop was Koi Dessert Bar but there as a long line. While waiting in line, I decided to try the strawberry watermelon gelato from N2. I've always been a huge admirer of the strawberry watermelon cake from Black Star Pastry . I thought it'd be an interesting combo to have it in a gelato form. It surely was, I quite liked the gelato cake, it had a very stron...
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Holiday cooking (Part 1)

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After completion of my thesis, I had the best time doing some cooking experiments. I spent a part of it overseas (see part 2 ) I've posted the recipe for kale chips and wholemeal date and walnut loaf . Veggie mess of zucchini, broccoli, beans, carrots and bean sprouts Rainbow trout cutlets with potatoes, zucchini, tomato and bean sprouts Sesame sprinkled salmon with tomatoes, peas and wilted spinach Wholemeal date and walnut loaf Kale chips with tzatziki Chicken spinach parcel with sweet potato mash Chocolate banana ice cream with flaked almonds (vegan) Oats, coconut and sultana cookies Poached salmon, sweet potato and walnut salad Asparagus and prawn curry Sweet potato, chicken and capsicum skewers Lemon herb salmon with sweet potato mash and zucchini Crumbed chicken on a stick Wholemeal fettuccine with lamb, zucchini and asparagus
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Five things I love about being a dietitian

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I've been thinking about writing this for a while now but thought I'd leave it for something special like Dietitian's Day (which is today) And here we go :) 1.    You are legally allowed to spend more time thinking about food.  The normal, acceptable amount for a person is 10% (according to experts), with exceptions for people if their profession involves dealing with food. If you're thinking more or less than this, your dietary habits may not be considered so normal. But as dietitians, you're allowed to obsess about food, and it's totally okay! ;) 2.    You always have something to strike up a conversation. Have you ever been in an awkward situation where you’re trying to carry out a conversion, but not sure what topic to pick? It can be a struggle when you’re connecting with new people. Talking about food is a good starting point because it's something we all eat; each and every one of us has something to share about food (likes/dislike...
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International Congress of Behavioural Medicine | Melbourne

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My flight faced major delays due to severe thunderstorms in Sydney. We had to wait for over two hours, most of which were on the plane so it was incredibly exhausting. Thankfully, the weather in Melbourne was much better. It was pretty cold and windy, it felt nice to get out of the scorching heat :) Leaving behind a stormy Sydney After reuniting with the bestie, we went out for dinner to a local Malaysian restaurant close to our home. Sweet and sour prawns with rice  Nasi Lemak Pineapple fried rice and seafood stir-fry I had one whole day to myself before the conference began on Wednesday, and we wanted to make the most out of this.  Oh, hello there, new friend! We had breakfast at Myuna Farm which was a few mins from our house. I loved their veggie focacia.  Brekkie at Myuna Farm  Veggie focacia ($9) Sweet treats at Myuna Farm Next stop was archery, my bestie has been an archer for sometime now, and we ...
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Juggling June

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I spent all of this month writing up my paper. I focused on writing my discussion for the first two weeks. Soon after I started writing, I realised, there were other small things I needed to finalise as well, like how I wanted my tables to look, supplementary information, etc. Getting everything together and trying to tie up loose ends has been harder than I imagined, but having some experience with systematic review write up (from last year) was sort of helpful. I was also trying to juggle a few other things on the side (more about this later).  Overall, it was a super intense month for me, but things are looking better now because I can almost see the finish line! The good news is that I've managed to meet the deadline I had set for myself, so I'm happy (for now). In other news, I was doing 'Junk Free June' this month which is an initiative run by Cancer Council Queensland that encourages people to give up a junk food for the entire month. I picked my to...
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Khaybar Restaurant

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Two of my friends recommended this place, it was my first time trying Afghan cuisine so I was quite excited. I was told they have really nice eggplant and meat dishes. There weren't many people as we went on a weeknight but I have heard that they are really busy and often hard to get a table. We started with their famous eggplant dip. The 'Buranee-Badenjan' came with large naan bread. The dip was rich in flavour but it was just too oily. I did not expect there would be this much floating oil. The bread tasted quite nice with the dip but it was hard to tear and manage. We would've liked if it had been cut in smaller pieces. Buranee-Badenjan as an entree ($6.90) For mains, two of us ordered the 'Qaboli Pallaw' (one chicken and one lamb shank). The chicken was soft and cooked well. The rice was topped with carrots, raisins and pistachios. I enjoyed the combination of sweet and savoury in this dish. Qaboli Pallaw Chicken ($14.95)  Buranee-B...
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