Beef Teriyaki in Oz

My first food blog, inspired by the beef terriyaki I consumed as a child in one of the food kiosks at the ground floor of the Rustan's Supermarket in Malate. It was a real simple feast - served on a hot bun with sesame seeds. Growing up, I've tried preparing this at home with very minimal help from recipe books nor instant mixes. And now this time around, with the very basic ingredients. And true to my word, this will only take a maximum of 5 basic ingredients. Rump steak cut into strips, soy sauce, onions, sugar and toasted sesame seeds. My utterly kitchen-clueless husband will adore me for this as he is an absolute "beef" kind of guy.

For starters, 500g of rump steak (this is a better option down under, as this is the most tender of the cuts and will not hurt your pocket), cut into thin strips. This is marinated in some light soy sauce (or if preferred and available kecap manis) and a little bit of sugar for about half an hour. The Kecap Manis (which is an Indonesian original sweet soy sauce) is used just to neutralise the saltiness of the soy sauce with the sugar. I've used it as well in BBQ marinades - works wonders in my girls' palate.

Thinly slice some onions. Stir fry this in about 2tbsp of vegetable oil, until all brown.
Stir in the onion chives last.

Transfer into a serving dish and top with roasted sesame seeds.

For the sides, wash the bean shoots and drip dry. Stir fry in a little oil and 1 chopped onions. Add some soy sauce and pepper to taste.

Easter Apple Hunt

This year, the tribe decided to join another Filipino tribe and head 2hrs north west from Sydney, to Bilpin NSW. Not for the usual Easter Egg hunt, but to pick some apples. This town boasts some of the best apples in NSW - from the Granny Smith kind, to Pink Lady, Gala and Fuji. Unfortunately, this part of the country was recently hit by hail and so the produce were somewhat of low quality - actually, bruised. Despite this, locals and tourists alike flocked the town during the long Easter weekend. We managed to pick a whopping 16kilos! Not so much because we love apples, but the tribe kind of gotten too excited with the actual picking. Maybe its time to make use of a handed-down "apple pie" recipe. When you do happen to visit this town, don't miss the Bilpin Fruit Bowl for one of the most scrumptuous apple pies and freshest apple juice. A small orchard but was full of character.

Apples were all over the place - and it was just devastating to see all these produce go to waste. It was a good feeling being able to help these small farmers in own little way.

Bruised apples, up close.This is one-stop you can't miss. It is along Bells Lines of Road going to the various orchards. It has a huge fruit bowl upfront.