Misty's Diner - Reservoir

Misty's Diner

Reservoir, Melbourne

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer"

Bruce Lee

I learnt something yesterday evening when my wife and I went to Misty's for the first time. The first thing we learnt was that we have been missing out big time. The second thing we learnt was that the song Shout! wasn't only performed by our own Johnny O'Keefe but was made most famous by the Isley Brothers. These are the things you learn when you find yourself in an American themed diner.

So what brings a couple to a place like Misty's diner? A few things come into play. A voucher book, the Queens birthday long weekend and an insatiable hunger. When my wife mentioned the words American diner I was on-board. Some phone based investigation gave me a warm fuzzy feeling inside as I scoured through numerous photos published by other hungry go-getters. A good indication of a place that serves a good burger is a burger challenge. Misty's burger challenge is comprised of 5 burger patties, 3 buns, 5 slices of bacon, 5 slices of cheese, mayo and barbecue sauce and a half serve of fries. If you can do all that within 14 minutes you will get a burger challenge t-shirt and your photo displayed on the burger challenge hall of fame.

Misty's has a cool 50's/60's vibe and you are greeted with American accented staff as you enter. Luckily for us we had packed our snow gear for the trip because the restaurant was full and we needed to sit in the cold Melbourne night. The menu is vast and the first thing that catches our eyes are our favourite American dish from our US trip 4 years ago... cheese & bacon potato skins. Before we look further we agree that a plate of said potato dish will be ordered.
We decided we weren't bothering adhering to diet regimen and went all out. The regular fries we ordered saw us wishing that we went in the curly fries direction as we watch a waitress carry a plate of them by.
Marleena (my wife) decided on the Western & Bacon which included a burger pattie, sauteed mushrooms, swiss cheese, mayonnaise, 3 onion rings and smokey barbecue sauce.
I ordered the Double Whammy, because if the word double is on a menu and is not superseded by the word triple, you can pretty much guarantee I am ordering it.
It had 2 beef patties and pretty much the same stuff as what my wife had ordered with the addition of the cheddar variety of cheese and some green stuff (lettuce and tomato).

I am a big fan of the food at Misty's. From what we tried it was very impressive and of good quality. Some might find the price tag of $15 to $25 for a burger a little steep but I thought it was more than worth it. The Western & Bacon burger was pretty massive so mine was probably too big. I know, I can't believe I just said that either.

So it has been all good news right? Well, there is just one thing that made it better. The Reese's Pieces thickshake was incredible! IT had cream, chocolate, cereal, ice cream and of course Reese's Pieces.

So all-in-all the meal we had was amazing and I will be going back to try and get through 1 or 2 more burgers and hot dogs, so watch this space.

Oh, and if you are going to eat here keep the napkin dispenser close by, that shit gets all over your face.

Single best thing about owning a Thermomix

Last night I posted a cheeky Facebook status stating that I would need to now write something with some substance since MKR wasn't on for a few nights, as I had been recently doing an episode recap on my blog. My cousin suggested that I write about the single greatest thing about being a Thermi owner. So I am going to give it a go.

We all know from my Nutella Christmas Tree review that I am a pretty big fan of the kneading function, who doesn't want that? Saves a whole lot of exercise that's for sure, and we all know how annoying exercise can be. Am I right? Looking down at my guts.

So I have taken everything that the machine does into account and tried quite thoughtfully to think of the single greatest thing about it. So here it goes.

I approach the Thermomix being a bit technology obsessive, I would be lying if the touch screen and the recipe chip weren't enough to sell it, I am a bit of a sucker like that. I would like to see it link to wireless and kick off cooking remotely via an app, but we will have to wait for the TM6 for that I suppose. Off topic already, not good. What I would say the greatest thing is the minimal effort that is required across the entire cooking process. You hear people telling you things like that's not cooking, takes all the fun out of it. Those people obviously don't own a Thermomix, and when I hear people say those things I tend to be happy they don't own one. They don't get invited to dinner either... 

You are not taking away anything from the cooking, all you are doing is condensing the cooking process to the one location. Avoiding the spread of mess throughout your kitchen.

For instance, if I am making a zuchini slice, hand grating the zucchini and the onion for 20 minutes isn't going to make it taste better than the Thermomix chopping it in 3 seconds. Not to mention the fact that you measure your ingredients straight into the thermi like some sort of wizard! Plus, you save the tips of your fingers from trauma along with the crying onion eyes (I can hear a song with the words crying onion eyes playing in my head). Granted it wont julienne for instance, but if you are wanting to julienne something for a dish, then you just julienne it, chances are it's going to be some sort of wanky plating garnish anyway. Not sure about you folks, but when my wife and I are making dinner on a week night, the last thing I give a flying follicle about is garnish or how nice and fine my carrots are cut.

So, reducing effort isn't something that stops with the cooking process, it extends to the amount of bench space required and the amount of cleaning before, during and after you cook. For most recipes, you will find that the Thermomix performs around 80 to 90 percent of the process, through preparation, cooking and cleaning. This, I feel is the best part of the device. Less mess, preparation, and cleaning means more time, and more TIME is really what this is all about at the end of the day. 

Forget what I said about effort earlier, it's all about the time. The phrase time poor is probably the most promenent phrase that comes up in the sales spiel when you go to see one of these devices in action, and it isn't just something they say to suck you in. Vorwerk have been making Thermomix for a quarter of a century now and they know who their target audience is, and they have developed a product around that very audience. 
It can be hard to eat properly when you are time poor, there is a reason that all the doctors that my wife works with own one of these, they are probably in the most time poor profession around but they understand the importance of healthy home cooked meals.

So in conclusion, I would say the time saving that you get from using the Thermomix is the single greatest thing about owning one. I think if you ask my wife she will tell you the same thing, in fact she is the one that keeps telling me these things, I am just along for the ride. The tasty tasty Thermi ride to mushroom risotto heaven.

Take a look at GC's Galaktoboureko thermomix recipe below...

Nutella Christmas Tree - Thermomix Husband Review

If anyone has any requests on Thermomix recipe reviews (a husbands perspective) let me know in the comments, would love to know what everyone is interested in reading.

After my last Thermomix post, I received a number of questions regarding the Nutella Christmas Tree, so I thought I would write a review on it specifically. Let's be clear; in this particular situation, I had nothing to do with the actual Thermomixing part, but more to do with the rolling of dough, layering of nutella and dough and some input in the shaping of the end result (although I was told I could not be trusted with this part). Link to the recipe will be at the bottom of this review for your reference.

When my wife told me that such a dessert existed, I immediately ran to the pantry and spread Nutella about an inch thick onto two slices of bread. I ate them, and while doing so was toasting two other slices of bread for further Nutella spreading to take place, I was then ready to discuss this. We sat and spoke over a cup of green tea to offset the sugar overload, it didn't work. We discussed using the 5kg jar of Nutella that I had received as a gift just recently. I fought against the idea, but was unsuccessful, apparently 5kg of Nutella is too much for one person to consume, I refused to accept but it was of no use. The Nutella was to be used.

Nutella Christmas Tree - Thermomix Recipe

It is recipes like this that the Thermomix enters a league of it's own. The ability to knead dough automatically without having to lay a hand on it is such an awesome feature, I mean seriously. It only needs to knead for a few minutes! You are kidding yourself if you think you don't need a kneading function like this. YOU SIMPLY NEED THE KNEAD!
You let the dough double in volume by leaving it in a warm spot (don't be rude! This time of year in Melbourne, outside is perfect) and then you proceed to divide it into four equally sized balls. You need to make sure these things are shaped like balls, not like a tennis ball, but like a football. Trust me, four little footballs. Roll them out into a football oval shape (you getting the theme here?). When the dough balls are shaped like a football they are easier to roll into an oval shape, if they are spherical it makes it a little more difficult. This is my way of doing it, and the best way to end up with heaps of off cuts. If you want less offcuts, you should probably watch the YouTube video I have linked at the bottom of this review. Roll them out so that they are pretty thin, but if you start to see the bench you have gone too far. If you start to see the floor you rolled it off the bench. If you see grass then you are outside getting the dough which has probably risen by now. After all the rolling and spreading of nutella and cutting of the resulting Christmas tree, you stick it in the oven for a bit and get the best damn dessert this side of the Mississippi. Break off those twisty branches and stick em' in your gob! A bit of whipped cream could be a good accompaniment, though they were most enjoyed without anything extra at all. If you do want something to add on the side, try the vanilla bean ice cream, another earth shattering recipe that holds total disregard for your cholesterol.

As mentioned in my previous Thermomix blog (an essential read for the husbands that don't really use the things too much), we made quite a few of these Christmas Tree's as they were well received by the family. They are easy to do and a joy to share.
For my Thermomix related reviews I am creating a special rating system, complicated beyond belief, just goes to show my level of commitment to the cause.

Recipe Rating: 7.25 / 10

http://www.easycookclub.com/2013/12/christmas-tree-with-nutella-filling-with-thermomix/

Thermomix TM5 (The Husband Review)

If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one - Mother Teresa

Thermomix...

Me: What are you on about?
Wife: The Thermomix! Don't tell me you haven't heard of it!
Me: Nope
Wife: It is this fantastic machine that chops, and weighs and cooks and blah blah blah...

Sensing my excitement, my wife booked me into a demonstration to check out this amazing piece of machinery, but before that I did some research as I was told this thing was going to cost us 2000 bucks! I'm glad I did the research, and glad I went along to the demo.

The Thermomix TM5 is the new generation of a product that has been around since the mid 80's. Though the company behind the product has been making appliances with similar functions for longer than that, the mid 1980's gave us the first with the Thermomix name. Enough of the history.

The wait for a Thermomix at the time we got it, which was December 2014, was 6 to 8 weeks. Talk about popular, it's not like it is coming direct from Germany, there is a warehouse in Perth. Apparently sales are through the roof at the moment and they are struggling to keep up with demand, those consultants must be pulling some serious cash. The first couple of weeks after receiving it were a bit of a non event. A reluctance to dirty a $2000 cooking appliance accompanied by lack of experience using it meant very few meals were cooked early on, but then came the Nutella Christmas Tree desserts that took Christmas by storm. The Nutella Christmas Tree is a simple dough recipe that is mixed and kneaded within minutes, all inside the Thermomix. You take it out, let it prove and then you start spreading nutella and finally shaping it all into a nutella and sweet dough layered Christmas tree. This tree was such a hit it was almost the only thing that we made in the Thermomix in the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas, but we made it about 10 times. Massive hit! 
Having perfected the art of Nutella Christmas Tree making, my wife gained the confidence she needed to start getting into some serious cooking, and now we find ourselves using the machine almost every night for multiple dishes. The beauty of it is the fact that you can prep something like a cake before dinner, get it into the oven and then get into making dinner itself. For instance, the average risotto takes around 20 minutes in the Thermomix, big deal you might say. But think about this, you don't need to do anything! Once you follow the steps getting all the ingredients in and letting them get chopped up, you let it go and it stirs and saute's the risotto for you. That's twenty minutes you get to spend reading a book or sitting down watching some television, at the same time the cake is baking in the oven.

The machine is pretty massive, but when you take into account that it needs to perform all these amazing functions then you kind of figure it makes sense, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to find somewhere on your bench to put the thing. You don't want to be lifting an 8 kilo machine in and out of a cupboard every time you want to cook, plus you will be using it every night, so no point storing it away anywhere.

When it is kneading dough it almost looks and sounds like it is going to bounce off the kitchen bench, but it doesn't which is lucky because it would probably do some serious damage to the tiles. It has some other quirks, like the lid gets locked into place for safety reasons when it about to mix or cook or do anything, if you don't put the lid on properly (which is common), it doesn't let you do anything. I hate that stupid chime it makes when something is finished cooking or it is telling you to move to the next step in the cooking process. Also, I can't imagine how I am going to be able to watch a game of footy with that racket coming from the kitchen... there may be arguments. It is a very loud machine, no one will deny that.

All that matters in the end is that it puts a smile on our faces, like a picture of a minion eating a candle or something (lets face it, they could do anything and make you smile). Nothing beats the feeling you get when you stuff your face with awesome food and share it with those you love. The Thermomix helps you do that by making the whole process of cooking more efficient and less complicated. 

My suggestion is to find yourself a Thermomix consultant and get to a demo, it will blow your mind (and your budget, once you realise you just simply MUST have one). I feel like I should say that this isn't for everyone, but it kind of is. It is just a matter of justifying the cost based on how much you plan on using it; but don't forget, it does inspire you.

If anyone at Thermomix wants to hire me for promotional work let me know ;)