Culinary Inspiration by Otao Kitchen

 A stocked pantry is the best way to ensure you'll have everything you need to make a healthy and flavorful meal every day. A combination of classic pantry staples such as tin tomatoes, chicken broth and tin beans and flavour-boosting convenience items like herb mixes, soy sauce and jarred pesto are key to keeping your kitchen dinner-ready. 

Plan A Weekly Menu? Are you struggling to manage a busy lifestyle and eat right? Menu planning may be the answer. You’ll find it easier to eat well, save money and get tasty meals to the table faster. Which of these steps can help you to plan better?

Food Hygiene & Safety At Home? Each year millions of people get sick from food born illnesses which can cause you to feel like you have the flu. They can also cause serious health problems and affect the immune-compromised the most. Good personal hygiene can help prevent food poisoning. Bacteria that cause food poisoning can be on everyone, even healthy people. You can spread bacteria from yourself to the food if you touch your nose, mouth, hair or your clothes, and then onto food. Follow these four steps to help keep you and your family safe or you can try out master classes

Otao kitchen has curated a variety of Online Asian Cooking Classes perfect for celebrating home cooking at home with Asian foods beyond Melbourne cooking studio. Guests can choose from a collection of options that allow you to connect with family and friends virtually and find meaningful ways to celebrate the food and people you love from a distance. Regardless of where your friends and families are living, Online Cooking Experiences make it easy to create lasting memories and design a special day just for "cook and connect". 

Cooking is one of life’s most essential skills, and while most of us can wrap our heads around a few basics, more advanced skills require tutelage to truly absorb and master. Unless you have a professional chef who’s eager to teach you in their spare time (something they probably don’t have a lot of to begin with), then your best bet is to enrol in a cooking class.

While there are many apparent benefits to joining a cooking class (learning to cook, learning food-safety practices, etc.), there are also some hidden and lesser-known benefits as well. Let’s take a look at some of the less obvious benefits of joining a professional, group cooking class.

As a city that has more than 300 suburbs, there’s never a shortage of interesting places to explore in Melbourne. If you feel like going to a place that exudes a “melting pot of culture” kind of charm, a drive or a tram trip to Brunswick can give you just that.

Located only 6 kilometres away from the city centre, you can already feel what it’s like to be in significantly different cities all at once.

Brunswick Itinerary: What Can You Do In This Suburb?

Brunswick is a place that will surely be loved by curious tourists. Even locals don’t run out of things to do despite having been there for a long time!

If you’ve decided to put Brunswick in your Melbourne itinerary, here are 9 things that are worth checking out:

Have you ever gone to the supermarket to pick up something and you ended up walking out with other things you think you'll need? If so, keep reading. Supermarkets and groceries have secrets to get us to buy items we weren’t planning to buy. Here are the secrets you should know before your next grocery trip.

#1 Spraying Produce with Water

Once fresh produce is picked, they begin to lose its natural moisture so fruits and vegetables dry out. Spraying water on fresh produce helps keep it hydrated so that it maintains moisture and letting it taste fresher for longer. Plump produce also looks fresh and you are more likely to buy food that looks good.

#2 Milk Fridge In The Back of the Store

Few people said that milk needs to be refrigerated otherwise it goes off so when deliveries are made at the back of grocery stores so having milk fridges there would be the best location. However, the real reason is that people come to the supermarket to buy milk, placing the milk fridge in the back forces visitors to walk through the entire store to find it. The result is that you end up seeing interesting products and likely you will buy more than you planned.

#3 Music Encourages You to Linger

Many supermarket play music with a rhythm that’s slower than the average heartbeat, which encourages you to move slower, making you spend more time in the supermarket. 

#4 Supporting Local Causes

Supermarkets often have budgets laid out for supporting local causes. If the organisation is having a fundraiser, asking your local grocery store for a donation is a great place to start. 

#5 Price at the Unit Pricing

When buying everyday items like rice or pasta sauce, it can be tempting to reach for the item that’s $4.50, instead of the one that’s $5.99. If you look closely at the price tag and you’ll notice the price per unit. Usually, it’s the smaller, lighter and cheaper bags that end up costing you more.

#6 Fresh Produce Entrance

Having flowers, fruits and vegetables be the first thing you see when you enter a grocery store, gives your brain the impression that you’re entering a place that’s natural and fresh. Supermarkets know that this zen entry is not only welcoming but it also makes you feel good about shopping at the store.

#7 Almost Expired Produce Used in Prepared Foods

Ever wondered where all that excess meats and produces goes once it's on its last legs? Many stores give it one last appeal in the prepared foods section - marinaded meats, cooked pies, prepared sausages and so on.

You might stress out of finding something to do on Valentine day? Going out or staying at home? For sure, you might find more romantic than going out to eat on Valentine’s Day and that is cooking for someone at home. Whether you cook together or create a culinary masterpiece to surprise your love, step out of your comfort zone and try your hand at these Asian recipes to really set the mood for love.

#1 Vietnamese Spring Rolls 

It's really easy to make restaurant-quality spring rolls at home. This little spring rolls can be frozen and cook straight from frozen in the oven or better at home to shallow fry them!

Check out the recipe here 

#2 Thai Glass Noodle

Glass noodle salad belonged to my favourites. Like in the majority of Thai salads, it is a great mix of flavours like spicy, sweet and sour. You can garnish with peanuts however in the class we may not provide peanut as someone might have an allergy. 

Check out the recipe here 

#3 Green Papaya Salad

If you visit Thailand on the streets of Bangkok, food vendors pound together this combination of green papaya, chillies, fish sauce and lime. Make this salad as tradition dictates with a large mortar and pestle to create the unique flavours of Thailand. More Green Curry and Red Curry Making as a base for your dishes.

Check out the recipe here

#4 Making dumplings 

 It's easy to prepare, budget-friendly and great-tasting, so what's not to love about dumplings! We've got chicken, pork, beef, vegetarian and more dumplings to make. You can use the ready-made wrapper.

Check out the recipe here

#5 Chinese Custard Tart

Egg tart made with Chinese puff pastry is one of the best Chinese desserts among the dim sum spread in Cantonese cuisine

Check out the recipe here