Ga Bin Korean Restaurant

- Alex 1 Comment

Chilli Pork Set

date of visit: Friday 29 April

Adelaide seems to be a bit awash with Korean restaurants at the moment. I’m not spending as much time in town so I’m reliant on my partner to report on the rapidly changing restaurant scene (which means I get to hear about the restaurants he wants to visit). We’re both big fans of Korean food so it’s hardly surprising that Ga Bin rated an early mention.

The restaurant is in an old furniture sales room on the corner of Morphett and Grote streets. The location and the large building make for an imposing space and it’s really lovely to see that the owners haven’t been tempted to cram in tables. The restaurant is, however, choc full of hard surfaces and right angles and I suspect if it were full it would be hard to hear yourself think.

Fortunately for me, grumpy old lady that I am, Friday lunch time is a quiet time for Ga Bin and our table of three was just one of a handful so things were quiet and we could have a civilised conversation.

The main menu is actually a mix of Chinese and Korean dishes. I’m never sure if this is a good or bad thing. Personally, I like to see restaurants have a short menu that makes sense and is cooked well. A menu that offers “garlic flavored [sic] fried chicken”, “garlic flavored [sic] fried king prawns” and “garlic flavored [sic] fried pork” is just a bit disturbing. But I guess that a broad menu offering some Korean and some Chinese dishes is one that might have wider appeal. There’s no Korean BBQ, so no danger of having to cook your dinner yourself!

We all ended up ordering from the lunch specials menu: I chose the chilli pork set, Andy the bulgogi set and the third party chose the shrimp fried rice (all under $10). We shared dumplings to start. The dumplings came with individual portions of dipping sauce which was a good touch. There was a complaint that the shrimp fried rice could have contained more prawns. However, the two lunch sets hit the mark. I thought I won with the chilli pork but Andy disagreed and was happy with his bulgogi. The lunch sets come with all manner of tasty sides: various pickles (of course), rice, soup, tofu, omelette. I found it all perfectly proportioned.

Our visit was swift. The restaurant wasn’t busy so we were served extremely promptly and the food came out quickly. As it was lunch and there were other things to do (people to see and so on) the fact that we were in and out in about an hour can be seen as a positive. Anyone who works nearby can nip in for lunch without worrying about stern looks on their return to the office.

I’d definitely return for lunch and I’d be happy to check out the main menu over a casual dinner. Ga Bin fits in with much of the food scene around Gouger and Grote Streets but it doesn’t strike me as being a venue for a slow, intimate meal. Ga Bin is definitely a venue where you need to make up your own mind: if you like Korean food you had best check it out while it is not too busy.

Ga Bin
144 Grote Street
Adelaide SA 5000
phone: 08 8231 9996

Ga Bin on Urbanspoon

Cupcake Camp

- Alex 1 Comment
Cup Cake Camp Adelaide

This Saturday sees Adelaide’s second Cupcake Camp taking place at the Box Factory, Regent Street South (just off Halifax) from 2pm.

Bakers from across Adelaide (including me) will be providing the cupcakes and for the general public there’s 3 hours of cupcake goodness to be enjoyed. Cupcakes will be $2, while mini cupcakes will be $1 each. Proceeds from this year’s event were initially going to go to aid the Queensland flood effort. However, with the onslaught of natural disasters that 2011 has brought, it is most likely that funds will go to the Red Cross.

So the cupcakes will truly be guilt free.

Chocolate Brownies

- Alex 3 Comments

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I’m lucky that, at present, I have more time for cooking (and thinking about food) than I would do normally. This means that most of our evening meals have become more interesting and more diverse.

It also means … more time to think about cake.

I have my favourite chocolate brownie recipe (thank you, Nigel Slater) but I’m not so loyal to it that I won’t try something else. I spotted this recipe for chocolate caramel brownies on taste.com.au in the run up to Valentine’s Day and decided it looked worth a go.

The first block of caramello chocolate was eaten so we had to have a second attempt (I bought the chocolate and made the brownies within 24 hours to prevent the same thing happening again). As you might expect, I also deviated from the recipe.

Begin by putting a 220gm block of caramel chocolate in the freezer (this is to make it easier to break/chop up). Grease and line (fully, not just base line) with baking paper a tin – I always use my smallish roasting dish for brownies and preheat oven to 160°C (fan, 180°C otherwise).

Melt 180gm of dark chocolate (broken up) with 150gm of unsalted butter (chopped). I used to be too scared to melt chocolate in the microwave but I braved it once and have never looked back. It’s a LOT quicker than standing over a double boiler, and because it takes less time I find I’m less likely to get distracted, start doing something else and end up with the chocolate seizing. Yes, you do need to keep an eye on it (I open the microwave and give the chocolate a stir every 30 seconds – 1 minute or so) but you’d be doing that in a double boiler anyway. So, give microwaving your chocolate a go!

I then tipped the chocolate and butter mix in to the KitchenAid and, using the flat beater, mixed in ½ cup of caster sugar. When that was well combined I left the mixture to cool a little (actually, at that point I went and helped bath the baby … you don’t need to leave it that long though!) before beating in 2 eggs.

Now, at this point the recipe adds in 1 ¼ cups of plain flour. That just didn’t seem right to me – plain flour and no raising agents? So I used self raising flour. Beat this in, along with 2 tbsp of cocoa.

When everything is combined (and I found the mixture to be very thick – almost dough like in the way it clumped together and came away from the edges of the mixing bowl) mix in the caramel chocolate, broken in to squares. It was because of the caramel chocolate that I used the KitchenAid rather than the trusty MagiMix.

Tip the mixture in to the prepared tin, smooth out as much as possible and bake for 20 minutes. The top of the brownie should be set.

Allow to cool before serving. The original recipe has you cool the brownies, cut in to heart shapes and decorate with extra cocoa powder. Trust me – you need none of that frippery!

These were very simple to make and, while they didn’t eclipse my current favourite recipe, I’ll definitely be making them again. Of course – you can substitute any flavoured chocolate you like for the caramel chocolate. A few ideas floated around the afternoon tea table were using Cherry Ripes, mint chocolate, orange chocolate and I reckon even adding KitKats might be interesting!