HelloFresh – Italian Spaghetti & Meatballs

In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week.  It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.

The HelloFresh Italian Spaghetti & Meatballs

Included in “the box” are recipe cards for the ingredients, they’re also available online at their website in PDF format.  This is our third meal from “the box” after the North African Lamb Tagine and Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad posted previously.

The recipe was straight forward as previous experience has led us to expect.  The pre-prepared mince joined an array of ingredients that did need some preparation.

Putting it together

When it comes down to it preparing this dish is quite simple, there’s a few steps but with only two saucepans at play it’s hardly a challenge.

The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings which deliver a good result.  I probably could have halved the size of the meatballs (I divided the mince as directed) and added a bit more Golden, Brown, Delicious to them but for the initial few boxes from HelloFresh we’ve trying o be sticklers for the recipes!

Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes

I found it a little hard plating, pasta just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate or be photogenic so there’s only the single photo.

HelloFresh - Italian Spaghetti & Meatballs - Served

In summary it was an interesting diversion from a regular bolognese and reasonable value at the $11.50 cost.  It wouldn’t be hard to reproduce this recipe for about half that price, but you’d be having to make about 6 portions to do it!

HelloFresh – Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad

In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week.  It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.

The HelloFresh Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad

Included in “the box” are recipe cards for the ingredients, they’re also available online at their website in PDF format.  This is our second meal from “the box” after the North African Lamb Tagine posted previously.

The recipe is simple enough and in some ways hardly imaginative but was also the first meal where we needed to supply some of our own “pantry items”.

Putting it together

Pepper Crusted Steak with Warm Potato Salad brings a few more parallel cooking functioning into play.  While the oven roasts the quartered chat potatoes a pot simmers away ready to blanch the sugar snap peas just before serving.  Meanwhile the steaks (a rather thin piece of rump) gets a single side coating of crushed peppercorns before hitting the pan.

The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings which deliver a good result.  To my taste the steak could have been a bit less “done” although this is more a function of thinner cuts then perhaps first anticipated by the HelloFresh crew.

It’s not rocket science and once the ingredients are brought together it starts looking like the sample picture on the menu!

Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes

HelloFresh - Pepper Crusted Steak & Warm Potato Salad Up Close
Up close with the HelloFresh Pepper Crusted Steak & warm potato salad

Laying out on the plate the meal looks good with the vibrant colours of the salad contrasting the peppery char of the steak.

HelloFresh - Pepper Crusted Steak & Warm Potato Salad Served

The warm potato salad is really the highlight of this meal, the steak itself was fine, but we all know what a piece of peppered steak is like don’t we?  The salad had crunch from the sugar snap peas, a little bite from the shallots and the aromatic dill carrying though the buttery smoothness of the roasted potato.

Some other reviews claimed there’s too much pepper on the steak but that’s something under the control of the chef so I don’t know why they ended up with more than they liked when they put it on in the first place!

In summary it was a good, filling meal that met with the expectation raised from the AUD11.50 per plate cost.  A minor downside was that the cuts of rump steak were not the best I’ve seen.

HelloFresh – North African Lamb Tagine

In a previous post I talked about my initial impressions of the HelloFresh delivery that arrived this week.  It’s our first time using such a service so the quality of the produce and the quality of the menu/recipes are equally important in determining if we’ll continue.

The HelloFresh North African Lamb Tagine

Included in “the box” are recipe cards for the ingredients, they’re also available online at their website in PDF format.  Our first meal was “the lamb”, chosen for no other reason than the expiry date of the lamb itself was closest.

The recipe looked simple enough and the ingredients far from exotic, but still there’s a comprehensive level of inclusion, things that we’d probably not buy if shopping for this meal ourselves.  The small amount of mint to garnish for example, or the slivered almonds, these are things that cannot be bought in such small quantities normally and end up lurking in the panty until cleared out long beyond their sell-by date.

Putting it together

The North African Lamb Tagine is listed by HelloFresh as being one of their more difficult recipes for the week.  I suspect this is partially because there’s a few separate cooking activities going on, and because there’s a few more ingredients to bring together with reasonable timings.

It’s still a 1-pan meal though which is a good thing (I’m not counting the use of a bowl for prepping the Couscous)

The instructions are very clear and provide incremental timings for most steps allowing even the most naive kitchen user can get a good result.

HelloFresh - Lamb Tagine hits the pan
The second phase is cooking down the vegetables

 

It’s not rocket science and once the ingredients are brought together it starts looking like the sample picture on the menu!

HelloFresh - Lamb Tagine almost ready
The last step makes it look like the meal on the recipe card

 

Hitting the Plates & How it Tastes

HelloFresh - Lamb Tagine ServedNestled on the bed of couscous, sprinkled with the garnishes of toasted almonds and chopped mint I’m very impressed with how similar to the sample photos this looks.

While I don’t always go-to-town on presentation when cooking I’m very aware that we eat with our eyes first and putting in some effort does make a massive difference.

At first bit the combination of textures is good, theres still some firmness to the carrot while the lamb is tender.  The crunch of the almonds breaks up what could have been a very stew-like meal.  Mixing through with the couscous changes the texture again.

The seasoning could have more kick, but reading other reviews online indicate that the Hellofresh team have to be everything to all people and in this case have chosen a good middle ground.

In summary it was a great tasting, filling meal that met with the expectation raised from the AUD11.50 per plate cost.

 

HelloFresh – Is it “Everything but the Chef”?

HelloFresh?

Several weeks ago a little card arrived in our mailbox offering a 50% discount on the HelloFresh food delivery service.  While the website promised “everything but the chef” we were still skeptical, would, or could, a home delivery produce service really live up to expectations?

I’m the kind of person that will agonise over the choice of every individual piece of produce I buy, secondly we both know what we like and dislike (or have a physical reaction with) so obviously we were needing to concede some control to the HelloFresh team.

“The Box” Arrives

We were really looking forward to the arrival of “the box” on Tuesday and during  the afternoon it mysteriously arrived at our doorstep.  This was the easiest and least stressful grocery shopping I’ve ever done!

We quickly opened it and explored the contents.  As you can see from the pictures below pretty much everything is labelled, packed and portioned for HelloFresh customers to match the included recipe cards.

Overall I’d say we’re happy with the quality of the produce, nothings been rotten, cosmetically challenged or not fitting with the claims of freshness.  Looking through he HelloFresh social media presence indicates that from time-time quality can drop the ball.  I’d expect this is largely due to inattention of the packing team and not a deliberate outcome.

The Recipes!

We signed up for the 3 meal, 2 people deal.  So while we may have thought on unpacking the box that “there’s not a huge amount of food here” a lot of the questions would be answered by cooking up the included recipes and seeing how they delivered.

So over the coming posts I’ll go into each recipe from this box…

When listed they don’t sound like culinary adventures, but I’ll throw it back to a bigger question, how often do you cook something different through the week?  In many ways I’m hoping the box provides inspiration to bring more variety into my kitchen and breaks some of the “it’s easy to throw this together” habits of old. We shall see!

2015 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix – Photos

I took a few photos during the 2015 Malaysian F1 Grand Prix.  A “small” selection is below.

Review: Zoo Negara (Day 3)

Zoo Negara – Pandas in Malaysia!

It may be becoming clear to readers of this blog that I’m a fan of Pandas.  Not obsessively, but lets just say I think they’re awesome.

P1080652

Getting There:

While Bukit Bintang may be more centrally located in Kuala Lumpur Zoo Negara certainly feels a little out of the way.  I used the MyTeksi “GrabCar” Service which hustled me to the Zoo for 30RM.  The car was clean, driver friendly and the trip was a little quicker and more comfortable than the Mono-rail-Train-Taxi combination recommended by some.

I was dropped off at the carpark entrance so a short walk up to the main entrance was in order.

Zoo Negara – Addressing the TripAdvisor Forum Posts

After paying the 85RM entry fee I pushed through the turnstiles and entered the zoo.  It was finally my chance to form my own impression after reading hundreds of reviews and forum posts on TripAdvisor which were less than complimentary.

Malaysias Zoo Negara is not the most modern zoo, not is it the best maintained “old style” Zoo I have seen but I would not say boycotting attendance over this facts is in any way an effective strategy, I would counter that more International Visitors, more support and more encouragement are in order.

You’ll still find some of the animals in small exhibits, you’ll still see “pacing” and other traits of boredom, but to be honest you can see that at just about every zoo in the world.  A rare exception may be the open range zoos where the sheer size of exhibits counteracts it.  There are signs throughout the zoo indicating that there are changes underway, and I certainly saw no signs of outright abuse that some of the TripAdvisor forum posts talk about.

Getting Around

Like most zoos you end up walking along a number of paths that loop and wind around the park, it’s not a massive zoo so you can take time to look at the animals, take photos at a relaxed pace and still not consume a full day.  Starting early – closer to the 9am opening time – will give you an hour of two in the relatively “cool” part of the day.  As the sun starts warming up there’s adequate shade but the animals are also keen on staying out of the heat.

Young Lion @ Zoo Negara

The standard exhibits are all there, many looking a little ramshackle or run down, the usual array of big-cats, African savannah “game”, Malaysian & Asian Locals as well as some representatives from Australia.  My pictures certainly don’t cover all the animals, but I was there for one of the most exotic animals, the Giant Panda.

How ’bout them Pandas?

After I saw my first Giant Pandas in Hong Kong I hadn’t really expected to see more (well maybe the pair in Adelaide) until we’d be able to make the journey to Chengdu in China.  So when I made my trip to Kuala Lumpur in 2014 I kind of overlooked the opportunity,so this year I was going to set that right.

The Giant Panda “enclosure” is built at the back of the Zoo and is a completely separate building/exhibit which has it own entry fee that can be purchased either at the Zoo entrance (as I did – making my total entry fee 85RM) or at the Panda exhibit.

Around the exterior are a number of less life-like Pandas you can use as photo props, a wandering Panda suited photo opportunity and the typical stands of bamboo to complete the very panda-centric environment.

Once you’ve been scanned in, you enter a “briefing” area where groups are given an introduction to the exhibit, reminders of the rules (no loud noise, no flash photography).  The intent seems to be groups run through the exhibit in 30 minute blocks, however thanks to my early start I was able to stay much longer in the air-conditioned exhibit, as the crowds never built up to a point where the staff had a need to move on groups.

The exhibit itself is small, and follows the pattern of a raised walkway dividing the exhibits with the Pandas relaxing on either side.

P1080772

 

After I’d taken and sent a bunch of Selfies around to people back home the path through the exhibit enters a small gift-shop of Panda Merchandise and finally a cafeteria where I had to try a Panda CupCake.

Last stop is picking up the souvenir photo with the suited Panda out the front before emerging back in Zoo Negara to wind back to the front of the park.

In Summary

Zoo Negara is not the most impressive zoo I’ve been to, some visitors may find the exhibits run-down and in the style of zoos of old.  The range of exotic animals is fairly typical, however the addition of the Giant Panda exhibit makes this a “must do” activity in Kuala Lumpur.  There’s only ~51 Pandas on exhibit outside China and this is on of the best value opportunities to see two of them!

Day 2: Petronas Towers Tour Review

Petronas Towers Tour (Finally)

Since 2012 I’ve made a few journeys to Kuala Lumpur and on every occasion I’ve completely failed at making my way to Petronas Towers and joining one of the tours to the top.  For my 2015 Formula 1 trip I decided I was going to book ahead and make sure I got to finally tick off the experience.

What’s the big deal?

Petronas Towers are the icon of the Kuala Lumpur skyline, probably the architectural feature of the city that will be remembered most frequently and the least likely to be “just like the one in xxxx”.

Unlike the KL Tower a short distance away the tours of Petronas Towers need to be booked in advance as there’s almost no chance of walking into the visitor centre and getting on the next tour.

The Tour

Starting in the visitor centre below the Twin Towers you collect your ticket and await the set meeting time.  There’s some displays and a gift-shop to browse before you pass through a basic security check (x-ray and metal detection) passing into a lobby where you’re given a safety briefing.  The briefings are offered in a couple of languages – but are also visually self explanatory, in short they amount to “Follow Instructions”, “Don’t be stupid”, “It’s really high, don’t look down if you don’t like heights”.

From the briefing we’re loaded into the elevator to ride up to the SkyBridge, be warned the elevators are loaded to capacity so it can be a little cozy, however a smile and a joke with my fellow riders broke some of the awkwardness.

At the Skybridge you’re given a quick introduction to the area and left to wander the bridge taking photos.

Petronas Towers SkyBridge
Petronas Towers SkyBridge

Thanks to the small group sizes and well managed timings it never feels crowded and there’s more than adequate time to take photos.

On the day of my visit (19th March 2015) there was a heavy haze – while it detracts from the view it’s a very real aspect of Kuala Lumpur and a good reason to come back again in the hope of a different weather condition!

After you’re shepherded off the SkyBridge (you are given a coloured lanyard so the staff can identify you as part of the group) it’s onwards and upwards.

Effectively at the peak of Tower 2 there’s a few models of Kuala Lumpur, videos and that stunning view.

As your time on the tour winds down the guides gently advise it’s time to return to ground level.

The courtesy and competence of the staff need to be commended, with multiple tours overlapping slightly as a visitor I never felt rushed.  There’s no calling out for groups to reassemble, just a personal approach, almost apologetically, that it’s time to move on.

The Petronas Towers tour isn’t the cheapest attraction in Kuala Lumpur, but it’s good value with limited numbers ensuring that there’s no crowding for photo opportunities.  It offers a view that is both spectacular and ever changing.

I can see this visit being the first of many.

Day 1: Malaysia Airlines CBR-KUL

Flying as a part of any trip is pretty easy; turn up at the airport, wander through security, be tested for explosives, sit about, get herded onto a plane, sit about, get herded off a plane and emerge from the casino like environs of the airport in a new locale.

If only it really worked out like that.

Leg 1: CBR-MEL

For me every international flight involves taking a short hop on one of the two domestic airlines (Virgin Australia or Qantas), deplaning, scurrying from a domestic terminal to international and going through the same motions again.

For the flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Airlines had me riding with their Oneworld Alliance partner Qantas.

As I’d been able to select the departure timing from Canberra I had very consciously made sure I selected flights to Melbourne on Qantas that utilised their jet service, these tend to fly on schedule irrespective of the Canberra weather and also make the journey a little quicker than the Dash-8 or ATR72s do.

Unfortunately over the months between me buying the ticket and the flights happening my seats were bumped to the bug-smasher.

This left me sitting in Canberra Airport for quite some time – eating up precious minutes I had to transfer to International in Melbourne.  At least I was already checked-in for the flight to KUL so they’d at least try to find me.

As it turns out I was “this close” to missing the flight to KUL!

If you’ve ever had one of those “tight” connections you’ll know the fear that floods through your body as you hear your name being butchered via the airport PA.  In my case I had made it through security of the International terminal and had just entered the twilight zone of Duty Free.  While I may have been walking briskly at that point I broke into a run to the farthest reaches of the terminal to present myself to the staff at the Gate.  10 minutes to boarding, and if I had’t run, I probably wouldn’t have made it!

Leg 2: MEL-KUL

With the crazy rush over and my heart slowing to a more sedate pace I quickly snapped a picture of the Boeing 777-200 that was to be my ride to Kuala Lumpur.  Grabbed a bottle of water and waited 10 minutes to board.

My seat, 12A, was comfortable enough without being generous in the allotment of space.  Without a doubt it’s an economy class seat but it doesn’t feel like being crushed into cattle class like some can.

Once flying the weather was largely clear with only a few minutes of bumps and thumps of turbulence.

The inflight service was efficient and friendly – a generous meal was served along with enough beverages to meet my needs.  Some may feel that the beverage service is not generous enough but I did see other passengers requesting and receiving additional drinks over the flights duration.

On the Ground

The end of every journey is the wait for baggage, the queues for Customs/Immigration and finally emerging into the destination.  Here I tend to find Kuala Lumpur International Airport to be pretty good.  There’s plenty of space so you don’t feel crowded in, and even the longer walks through the terminal are appreciated after the flight.

As one of the worlds best airports it does a good job of being efficient and welcoming, without many of the annoyances that can be found elsewhere.

 

Megamall Crawling Malaysia!

I’m less into shopping than this post makes me look, however the “Megamall” can be a fascinating adventure for travellers.

On my upcoming Malaysia trip I’ll be trying to hit some of the largest in the world!

Malaysian Megamalls

Malaysia is well represented in the Wikipedia List of Megamalls playing host to 8 in the list while Australia has a single entry.  I’ve already visited a couple on past trips and this time I’m hoping to chalk up a few more!

  1.  1Utama – The largest in Malaysia and the =5th largest in the world
  2. Mid-Valley Megamall – 8th Largest in the world and visited in 2014.  At the time I just thought it was big, now I understand just how big!
  3. Sunway Pyramid – 11th largest and maybe a little out of my way for this trip – but you never know!
  4. Berjaya Times Square – Visited in 2012, 2014 and as it’s almost “over the road” from my accommodation will be visited again in 2015.  In 18th position it’s a sizeable effort to cover!  This is also the 8th largest building in the world!
    Berjaya Times Square
  5. Queensbay Mall – Located in Penang this may be a stretch to fit into my short stay in the area.  However to hit the equal 39th in the worlds largest malls it may be worth the effort!
  6. IOI City Mall – Taking 49th position this mall is in an area that I’ll be trying to visit at least once this trip.  It may be an even adventure after the F1 practice!
  7. AEON Bukit Tingii Shopping Centre – I don’t like my chances of making it to the 55th largest mall, but as my KLIA Ekpres will pass it a few times I may jump off!
  8. Aman Central is oping this year, unfortunately I won’t make it there.

 

Petronas Towers Tour eBooking

It seems I wrote too soon about the Petronas Towers eBookings not being available due to the upcoming (1st April 2015) GST implementation.

Booking a Petronas Towers Tour

I jumped onto the Petronas Towers website a couple of days ago and tried a date in March 2015 and “bam” it worked.

So I’ve made a booking!

Petronas Towers eTicket
Petronas Towers eTicket

Here’s hoping for good weather on Thursday the 19th of March!  Why not watch the official Petronas Towers Milestones video for some information about this feat of engineering!

Some extra background:

It turns out that while you can book the Tours online, they’re not really set up for booking the same time as you’d normally book your holiday. The best you’re probably going to manage is 28-45 days in advance – although this does seem to vary at some parts of the year.

I would say popping a diary entry in to do a weekly check in the lead up to your visit would be wisest.  In some 4 years of looking at these tours they’re still as “in demand” as ever!

About the Tour!

Around 8am on the 19th of March I shook off the lack of sleep from my late arrival in Kuala Lumpur and walked from the Sky Hotel Bukit Bintang to the Pavillion Mall and onto the covered walkway to KLCC.  By the time I’d enjoyed a coffee in the Suria KLCC mall I was still comfortably early for my tour.

Making my way through the mall to the