Fritz Gelato..

it is freaking hot here in melb today. it reminds me of my visit to a gelato place i went two weeks ago, it's called fritz gelato at 334 bridge road, richmond, vic 3121. it is an award winning gelato, famous for their organic and italian style ice-cream. i tried the chocolate indulgence, which is one of their award winning flavour, and also the flavour of the month, forest berry. if you're a chocolate fan like me, you would want to try that! it's so rich in flavour and a bit of bitterness, absolutely awesome! love it!

look at all those awards!! no kidding that they are really specialise in what they do. they have lots of flavours, other award winning flavours like the lemon cheesecake, rum and raisin, coffee rush and so on. you can check out more of these on their website, http://www.fritzgelato.com

Me Dee Thai Restaurant..

i went to me dee thai restaurant as recommended by friends. it is a surprisingly authentic small thai restaurant at 1/1 3 st john's avenue, springvale, 3171. there are alot of thais going there. and the food was really delicious! my mum and i ordered two mains, one seafood tom yum, $10 and a chicken pad thai, $10 and also a glass of coconut ice blended, $3.

it was all packed when we arrived there.

you would want to try this hot chilli spices if you're into spicy stuff

one of my favourites, seafood tom yum noodle soup. there's mushrooms, mussels, prawns, squid, fish balls, lemon grass, shallots, chilli, coriander, some chinese cabbage and something like lime leaves. it was really sour and with mild spicyness even though it might look like clear soup. two thumbs up!

pad thai with chicken, bean sprouts, fish cakes, spring onions, coriander, and peanuts. i like this one, it was mild and bit of sweetness. i like the noodles that they used. its chewy texture is so nice for stir fry like this and also evenly good in the tom yum noodle soup.

it was a big meal for two of us but yet i finished all of them. it was delicious! with a chilled coconut ice blended during the hot days, awesome!

okay i was trying to be adventurous and tried adding some dried chilli into the tom yum soup, it became too spicy for me! haha!

we were greedy enough to have desserts too! it was so tempting as they were selling some authentic desserts at the counter inside the shop. and so we picked this, something like 'ondeh-ondeh' in malaysia, a dessert made of flour and coconut flakes. it was really sweet!

the inner part of it looked like this. with caramelised cocnut flakes inside. $4 for a pack of 8.

and this, this, this!!!! we were so excited to see this, banana fritters like what we have in malaysia. we even waited for extra 20 minutes for the kitchen to fry these. seriously it might not be anything special, but for us that came here for so long and haven't been eating this for ages since we left malaysia, this is so huge for us to know that there is such authentic banana fritters selling around here!! my last time eating this was like more than 2 years ago. it tasted exactly the same and with some sesame flavour as well, it was heavenly good! like the highlight of my day.. it was $4 for a pack of 5 pieces. oh it was so good!

Hawker's Cafe..

if you're looking for authentic hainanese chicken rice in melbourne city, try the hawker's cafe at 213 russell street. the taste is rather similar to the ones we have in malaysia. how authentic is that.. the rice has the kind of oily, strong chicken flavour which i love it! and you can choose the chicken boneless steamed chicken or fried chicken. both of them equally good, depending how you like it. it serves together with a bowl of soup as well. i would prefer a chicken broth soup instead of a clear soup with some lettuce.

steamed boneless chicken rice. the normal serving size, which costs $8.80. you can choose to order a large size which is $11.80. the chilli sauce tastes quite nice with sourish, gingery flavour and a bit of spicyness. probably would taste better if it has more spicyness. but still it's yummylicious..

Mart 130..

i went to mart 130 today to try out their famously known breakfast. i was feeling quite excited to try out the place as there are quite alot of good reviews about the cafe. it has really unique name, mart is actually spelled backwards of tram, and it's stop number 130. it's at 107a, canterbury road, middle park or you can take tram 96 from bourke street towards st kilda beach. we didn't wait too long to get a table, and i was quite amazed by the ambience of the cafe and it's just right next to a football field, albert park. here's some photos..

this is the menu. it's a long list, that means varieties, i like!

some specials on the board.. one of us ordered the first one and the cook was kind enough to allow us to change the poached eggs to scrambled eggs. good service, tick!

somehow i just like the simple decorations on the table.

cappucino and honey chai latte. i'm not a coffee fan, but i heard that the coffee is pretty good.

this is what i had. scrambled eggs, with sour dough toast, spinach and mushrooms as the sides. the toast tasted really good. and the taste of the scrambled eggs was mild and fluffy. very healthy breakfast! love it..

this is the #2 in the menu. poached eggs with avocado, bacon and toast. the avocado together with the eggs are rich in flavour and with a taste of saltiness of the bacon, this is really interesting one..

the corn fritters with bacon. the fritters tasted sweet and by adding on the saltiness of bacon, it tasted really good. something new for us i should say.

i was playing around with my camera, used a different colour mode for this. anyway this is the #4 on the menu, there's poached eggs and smoked salmon, not sure how this one taste like. but definately looking good. anyway i had a great time enjoying the food and great company. definately coming back the next time!

Sawasdee thai restaurant..

yesterday i went out dinner with a few friends and headed to sawasdee thai restaurant at 1/139 little bourke street. the atmosphere is really nice and quiet, with classy interior design yet keeping some authentic feel of thai. there were four of us, and we ended up ordering a vegetarian pad thai, chicken green curry, tom yum soup and rice. you get to choose the spicyness of the spicy dishes and also the ingredients to go with it, varieties of selections depending how you like it to be. i think the food was pretty yummy and love my favourite tom yum soup. it was rather pricey restuarant though, we paid for about $75 for the meal. the main dishes range $20ish per plate and the soup was $9.80 per serving.

the pad thai was really nice. with a hint taste of lemon, spices and peanuts. nice presentation too.

the in-house famous green curry and i ordered it with chicken. ordered mild for this one but it turned out to be bit spicy too. but it tasted delicious with the jasmine rice.

my favourite tom yum soup. it was really yummy, definately a mouth watering dish. would love it to have more ingredients, there was only mushrooms, tomato and a slice of prawn in there. but i still love it alot, it tasted great! i had an enjoyable night with great food and great company.

Mocha Jo's..

on new year's day, i went to mocha jo's at glen waverley, along kingsway. it's a really nice, cosy restaurant that i always wanted to give it a try. anyway my family and i headed there for breakfast and it ends at 12.45pm for weekends and public holidays. i would say the food was indeed pretty good, nice presentation and good in terms of flavour.

i've ordered for the billy's breakie, which came together with two poached eggs, avocado, smoked atlantic salmon on top of a slice of whole grain toast with a side of chilli tomato jam which was really intersting.

and as for dad, he ordered the mjs for works which included two fried eggs, sausages, braised mushrooms, bacon and grilled tomato with a slice of toast. the typical big breakfast that we normally have. love the braised mushroom. but i think it was a bit too dry.

sis ordered for something more simpler. she ordered the eggs benedicts which has two poached eggs with a slice of toast and with bacon. the saltiness of the bacon with the creamy feel of the eggs made it tasted really good.

for mum, she ordered banana bread. the bread tasted really rich, you can taste the strong buttery smell with the rich and soft texture of the banana bread with the crispyness of the outer layer. overall we all enjoyed the meal and it cost us about $60 for the meal.

Big Mama..

last week i went to a korean restaurant called Big Mama, at shop 462, swanston street. it's close by the public bath. i was starving when i arrived there. so when i was looking through the menu, my stomach agreed with me that they all looked yummy. anyway my friend and i settled with agedashi tofu as entree, my favourite kimchi chigae (stew kimchi with pork belly), and also karaage chicken.

one thing i like about korean cruisine is the sides that they provide. sometimes you get some very interesting sides and delicious too! the tofu was really good, one of the highly recommended dishes. my favourite kimchi stew was absolutely awesome, the flavour was so condensed and with lots of ingredients. it's one of the best ones that i've tried before. the chicken was fried till crispy but added some sauce on it that made it not too dry. i had a really satisfying meal and definately going back again. for the dishes we've ordered, it was about $16 per person which is considered quite cheap.

Dry noodles with soya sauce..

one of my old time favourite is dry noodles with soya sauce. i had it almost every week way back in malaysia and they were of course very cheap. after coming over to melb, i always have the cravings of it. my sis and i wanted to try making ourselves. surprisingly, it tasted pretty good. so here you go, all you need is egg noodles, the sauce, spring onion, bok choy, and some roast meat. or perhaps some won ton as well.

well the hard part about making dry noodles is about cooking the noodles. you can't overcooked it or else it won't be that yummy. only dip in the egg noodles into hot boiling water for a few seconds and then rinse it with cold water. then the noodles will keep the chewy texture. we also cooked some chicken soup with fish balls to have it with the dry noodles.

the next thing is the sauce. the ingredients are as follow:

10 tbsp dark soya sauce

5 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp of sugar

2 tbsp of sesame oil

3 tbsp cooking oil (i used olive oil instead)

1 tbsp mirin sauce (a type of japanese vinegarish seasoning sauce, or instead you can use xiao xing wine)

thinly chopped garlic and some shallots

Steakhouse..

i actually went to steakhouse last year. yea it was just few weeks ago. anyway you can get the best deal on tuesdays at steakhouse. but definately need to pre-book for a table as it gets relly packed on tuesdays. as it was really packed, it took a while for the meal to be served. lucky for us that the waitress who was looking after for our table was really welcoming and friendly.

you can see the kitchen from the dining area.

recommended by the waitress that we should order some garlic bread as entree due to the long wait for our meal.

the main course that i ordered. it was the arabica dusted yearling grade beef, 280g porterhouse and it was $26. and the best deal about tuesday is that you get 50% off the bill with an order of main course and a dessert. so my steak was only $13. it was a bargain! as you can see, it only comes with the steak and some grilled cheese potato underneath. so you would want to order some sides which is around $8 per side. i also ordered a glass of rose. i should say it wasn't the best steak, but definately a bargain for the price you're paying.

after the full meal, it was dessert time! and i should say that their dessert was awesome! but too bad we were too full to enjoy our dessert. this one here is the raspberry cheesecake. nice presentation.

this is the tiramisu. it has a strong taste of almond, which was quite different from the normal ones we have. but it is one of the favourites in the dessert menu.

this is my cup of tea!! the chocolate pudding which is also one of the favourites and it was the best that i've eaten so far. the melting chocolate inside was pouring when i took my first bite. and with the lovely decorations and the cold vanilla ice-cream, it was just pure awesomeness. seriously very hard to describe but it was really that fantastic. two thumbs up!

Rich Maha..

unfortunately i'm not too good in eating spicy food. if you're after for some really spicy stuff, indian food is one of the choices. before that i went to rich maha indian restaurant at 499 Burwood rd, Vermont South. the restaurant was all packed when we reached there.

the very moment that i stepped into the restaurant, you'll get the malaysian feel. how authentic is that. with the varieties to choose from, you'll be in a queue thinking what to order. it took me a while to explore all the different curries they have there.

the teh tarik was highly recommended. i should say it was really good. and in front it was the chicken masala, if i'm not mistaken. they are cooked with curries and some tomato paste, so i would say that it wasn't that spicy for this one. yummy one though!

the best part of the evening there. the plain roti was superb! it was made as thin as paper. seriously that is by far the best roti i had in melbourne after so many years. i really miss the ones in malaysia, and they are cheap as well! i also tried their roti banana. it was delicious! bear in mind that it was my first time having roti banana, you must be wondering whether i am malaysian or not. :P

lots of curries that we ordered. we had quite a few of us and as you can see, the serving is not too big. and some of them was really spicy!

this is the highlight, the fish head curry. huge serving and it took half an hour to be served. but it was worth the wait. it was cooked together with tomato, and some eggplant as well. and the curry sauce was awesome. it was hot and with the strong taste of spices. their dishes price range around $8 to $16.50. well it's a good choice if you're after for some spicyness and some roti cravings.

Zest 89..

last night i also went out to splurge myself a good dinner with my mum. we went to zest 89 at glen waverley, along kingsway. well when we arrived there, we waited for a while to be seated. looking through at their menu, there wasn't alot of selections, so i settled with a chicken zest burger while my mum ordered for a seafood salad. we waited for quite a long time for our meal to be served. i guess they need to improve on that. well their servings are quite generous and with nice presentation.

the seafood salad was pretty good. mum enjoyed the varieties of seafood with asian mixed salad

well as for my tandoori chicken burger, it was just average. the chicken was marinated well but it was cooked too long, so the meat was a bit dry. i think the design and atmosphere there is pretty good. it was new year's day, i still enjoyed myself.

Imperial Kingdom..

happy new year everyone! hope that it's a great year ahead us. on the new year's day, i went to have yum cha with my mum in the afternoon. i went to imperial kingdom along blackburn road. the restaurant was all packed with people that day. and lucky for us that we were able to book a table.

the left one is the prawn dumpling steamed with mushroom. it was pretty good, the prawn tasted nice together with the sweetness of the mushroom. while the right one is pork wrapped dumplings, it was wrapped into a money bag. it was so adorable that we looked at it for a while before eating it.

we had our favourite fried taro with pork meat. i would have to say the one i had in shark fin's house was alot better than this one.

yummy! this is my favourite during yum cha session. it has been a while since i had these egg tarts. it was really delicious. the crispyness of the pastry and with the softness of the egg custard just goes together really well. it was fresh hot from the oven. when you eat it, it just melts in your mouth. awesomeness!

a nice sweet way to finish off our yum cha session with a bowl of beancurd dessert, named "tau fu fa". the texture was really good, it was so soft and it just melted away in your mouth. i had quite a satisfying meal there but of course as usual, the service was not so good in this kind of chinese restaurant. we had about 6 kinds of different dim sum and it only costs $32. so the price there is considered average, nice location for a quick gathering.