Mel's Food Journey

I've Moved..

2011-01-13T20:52:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone! I've got a huge news to share, I've always been happy with blogspot and it's all so easy and comfortable. I have to say that I love using it to write my blog posts. I was so sad when I knew that my quota for uploaded photos was full. And so, I've decided to get my own website. After a few days of huge web construction, it's up and ready to go now! May I present you with my website, www.melthefoodaddict.com ! Next post will be my Tassie trip Part 2. Please come and visit me! Thanks peeps!

Lots of love,

Mel

Tasmania Visit..

2011-01-08T21:18:00.000+11:00

Woohoo! Jen and I went to Tassie for 4 days before New Year's and I had a superb trip, full-on photographing time there. Since my friend in Tassie knows that I'm a foodie, he had done a great job in finding some nice food for me to try out. But our schedule was kind of tight for the 4 days there, and we did camping for 2 nights, with no bathroom facilities on the first night on Bruny Island. Well you'll get the rough idea on our nature trip. Don't get me wrong, I did have a superb time enjoying the nature life around Tassie land. We were having hot pot inside our tent on the first night with the rain and cold weather. That was an awesome meal! We did miss out a few nice places that we wanted to try out, well I guess there's more reason for us to head back there again.

According to my friend, this is the best place for curry scallop pie. It's at Ross Village Bakery. It's on the way from Launceston to Hobart. It's a must stop place when you're driving pass that small town.

Nice weather to chill out at the outside of the cafe.

After touched down in Launceston for around one hour later, voila! I was having curry scallop pie for my breakfast, matched that with a cup of coffee. Ohh-la-la! I was in the heaven. I love scallop to start with and the pastry was awesome.

Look at the creamy and fragrant creamed curry with perfectly cooked scallops in the pie. My heart just melted. mmm..

After arriving in Hobart to pick up another friend, we headed to Mako for lunch. I just got to know that Mures which is just opposite of Mako, is famous in Hobart! Didn't try that, so that's one reason for me to go back to Tassie. Trying to find some excuses to convince myself to go back to visit. :P

It's a small restaurant inside, just nice to stay easy and comfortable after all the travelling. We went straight to start our road trip ever since we've landed.

Look at those oysters! Time to have some feast. It wasn't the best fresh oysters I've tried so far, but I was happy with it. *slurps*

My friend ordered the prawn and scallops skewers with salad and chips.

Jen and I ordered the fish platter to share with all. There's fried fish of day, calamari, scallops, crumbed prawn cutlets, crab sticks, chips and salad. Fresh seafood and love the bread crumbed fish. On that night, it was hot pot! We had heaps of food, meatballs, fishballs, wontons, vermicelli, and eggs. It was yummy and comforting, considering that it was cold and raining. Thanks to our tour guide!

Up early to start out our next day's agenda, I was totally salivating when I saw all the pastries and pies at The Richmond Bakery. I was so greedy that I wanted to try them all.

I was having a tough time to decide. Look at them! They look absolutely gorgeous.

Fresh breads for sale as well.

Well I ended up ordering a chicken camembert pie and a lemon tart while Jen was being greedy too and had curry scallop pie with black forest cake.

The chicken camembert pie was delicious. I'm a huge fan of pastries!

The mouth-watering black forest cake. It was nice and chocolatey with the cream and cherries.

Lemon tart has the intense tangy lemon flavour with nice crumbly pastry crust.

The insight of the curry scallop pie, oh yes! We did compare with the ones in Ross Village and I still think that the one in Ross Village was better, just my personal preference I guess.

What a nice place to relax and have a cup of coffee with a pie. Love every bits of it!

This is an elephant themed cafe, Mount Elephant Pancakes Cafe at Elephant Pass Rd, Gray. It was nice to have some nice and warm food there, we were travelling in the car all day. When it comes to dessert, I got all excited and happy. There were quite a few little things of elephant around the cafe.

The berries pancake was full of ingredients inside, with strawberries, blueberries and raspberries which is in season at the moment. The pancake was thin, it felt like a crepe.

Chicken and mushroom pancake.

In fact, I forgot what pancake is that. Well don't you think the pancakes looked like elephant nose? Cute isn't it? The pancakes are about $16 each. It's something like Pancake on The Rocks.

Hope you enjoyed yourself reading this. I had an awesome time in Tassie and I have more to share, will leave that to another post. Have a great weekend peeps!

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Chocolate and Strawberries..

2011-01-03T15:08:00.001+11:00

Happy New Year to all. I had a great time catching up with friends, bbq session at the park, the crazy boxing day sale and next, I went to visit Tassie and had a blast there. Anyway here's a mini chocolate cake that I've baked for the christmas season. Remember that I've mentioned before that I had made the Masterchef's black forest cake? Well I definately needed to practise on more sponge cake and hence, I've made chocolate sponge cake with chocolate and strawberries.

I've googled for the recipe and found it at Best Recipes and I've actually halved the portion to half as I was making a mini version. The cake was soft and fluffy, love it with the melting chocolate and strawberries. Yum!

Ingredients:

2 eggs, separated

1/4 cup of caster sugar which I further reduced that to around 60g

1 teaspoon of maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

1/4 cup of cornflour

1/2 tablespoon of plain flour

1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan forced
2. Grease 2 mini cake tins
3. Place egg whites in electric mixer bowl and beat until soft peak form
4. Combine caster sugar and bicarbonate soda and gradually add it into the egg whites while still mixing
5. Add egg yolks and beat together
6. Add maple syrup and briefly combined
7. Stir the dry ingredients and add them into the wet mixture, fold in gently
8. Pour the mixture into the cake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes
9. After getting out from the oven, let it cool for at least 5 minutes before taking the cake out of the tin
10. Lightly whip around 60g of thickened cream and place it in the middle of two cakes with some strawberries. Double boiled 100g of chocolate with some butter and pour it on top of the cake. Decorate it as you wish. For presentation purposes, I've dusted some icing sugar on top. Pretty right? :)

Happy New Year..

2011-01-01T21:51:00.000+11:00

Welcome 2011! I have to say that I've been through alot in 2010, it was an exciting year with lots of new things and hope that there's many more this year. I've been writing here for a year with a total of 106 posts, time really flies. Hope that I'll get to try more food this year and you'll get to read more. Enjoy life and have a great year. Take care and thanks for all the supports from my readers, fellow bloggers and my dearest friends. Love you all and happy new year! A sneak peak of my Tassie trip. xoxo

Merry Xmas..

2010-12-23T23:35:00.000+11:00

Look at our own christmas present that we've got for ourselves in the kitchen. Weee.. it's KitchenAid mixer and we've also bought the ice-cream mixer for it as well! Lots of heavy duty baking and ice-cream making is coming up! Stay tuned! :D

A Lego advertisement that I saw in Town Hall station. How cute is that? Have you done your last minute christmas shopping? Last few hours more to catch up. Merry Christmas everyone!

Four Ate Five..

2010-12-21T19:04:00.000+11:00

The best thing about Surry Hills, you'll get to have nice breakfast in one of the cafes around that area. I love trying out new places for nice hot brekky. When a friend from Melb came over to visit, we went to try out Four Ate Five. Lazy weekend, great company with nice weather and a long queue to get a table.

Small and cosy cafe to enjoy your breakfast and a cup of coffee.

Mmmm.. thick hot chocolate, it was really good! Thick, creamy, chocolatey and slightly bitter. Just the way I like it.

For Jen, he tried the barramundi burger with homemade chips. The fish was so fresh and nicely grilled. I love the chips. Can't help it to sneak more from his plate.

I had the three cheeses meetballs with rockets and sourdough toast. Strong flavours, bit of tomato soury taste with the meatballs and love the combination with the rockets.

My friend had spinach omelette on the specials that day. Very healthy choice for a morning breakfast. Light and fluffy omelette with full on ingredients. We all agreed that the bread was really good. Yum! It was definately jam packed during the morning weekends. But it's definately a place to hunt for some good food and coffee.

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 485 Crown Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010

Zhu Mama Taiwanese Restaurant..

2010-12-18T12:44:00.000+11:00

There's a bit of Taiwan fever among my friends at the moment. I've been looking at different sorts of yummylicious taiwanese food photos lately. Well there's one taiwanese shop at Chinatown called Zhu Mama that I went to try out with sissy. We've only ordered for some snacks, so I'm definately going back again to check out on other items.

Sis had the vermicelli soup, it tasted bit different from the ones that I've tried before. Nevertheless, it was really nice, warm and comforting soup to have.

I've also ordered the warm soya bean drink.

And also xiao long bao. The moment you bite into the bun, the soup inside the bun just flowed out gradually. The skin was fairly thicker than usual. Would have been better if it's thinner and smoother. Very looking forward to go Taiwan to have a feast! Anyways I'm getting hungry now.

Ratings: 6/10

Address: Shop1-4, 86-88 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic..

2010-12-14T13:56:00.002+11:00

Last Saturday, I've attended Sydney Food Bloggers Xmas Picnic hosted by Suze and Helen at Moore Park. Funny thing was that it took me a while to find the crowd cause I didn't know anyone and the whole park is huge. Didn't have any numbers to call and I don't have twitter. Time to get one! Well it was my very first time to join in a bloggers' event. I have to admit that I was kind of nervous when I just arrived. Thankfully that everyone was really welcoming and friendly. It was real fun meeting up with some of the bloggers that I'm actively following. It was a shame that I didn't take many photos during the picnic. My bad! But there were lots of food, from savoury to sweets. From the very popular ribs that I didn't get my hands on by Billy to the awesomely colourful macaron christmas tree by Cleony.

This is only part of it. Believe it or not!

Food bloggers, picnic rugs, food, cameras and one common language.

Food from east to west. I guess my curry puff was not enough for the day. Lol.

The cute strawberry santas by Ayana and lovely xmas tree.

Love the cheesebread from Tammi.

Huge plate of white chocolate wontons by John.

Absolutely a piece of art there by Cleony. Everyone was so excited to see the macaron tower. Sharing the christmas love.

I've tried the raspberry one and it was thumbs up! Great effort.

I was also extra lucky to get pick on to join in the bloggers olympics event, go Tinsel Twos with Rhonda, Joshua and Minh! Next up was kris kringle event which had a little twist to it. We got the chance to steal someone else's unwrapped present. It was great fun and there were a few hot items going around on and on. I've received a cute set of cupcakes themed envelopes.

p's Thanks heaps to Helen and Suze for organising the event. It was great fun and meeting both of them in person. It was really nice meeting up with Monica in real person and had a nice chat. . Thanks Sneh for the company during our bus ride, if not I'm sure I'll be lost somewhere in the woods. :) The very first person that was introduced to me was Mel. What a coincidence. Hope to see everyone again!

Masterchef Live Event..

2010-12-12T16:44:00.002+11:00

After watching two series of Masterchef and one series of Junior Masterchef, I'm definately one that is totally hooked by the show. The love, passion and talent in food by the contestants are just admiring. Following the series, and looking at the growth of the contestants in the show is just amazing. I felt so empty after the show ended. It also encouraged me to venture more into cooking and baking. I've attempted the black forest cake before and it turned out unsuccesfully. *sad* Oh and I'm a huge fan of Marion and Adam in series 2. So I saw this advertisement through Ticketek that they are organising a Masterchef live event in Sydney and off I bought the tickets. Can't wait and so exciting!

It was at Moore Park which is at the other side of the bridge, it was an early start for the day. Off we go!

Legendary logo at the main entrance.

Lots of different stalls with samples and great products for sale.

The one hour live theatre show hosted by Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris had hands-on selected audiences to the stage to cook, masterchef class, insights of the show, fun, fun and more fun!

Guests on the show were Donna Hay, Adam and Marion! They are looking great and best of all, Adam's restaurant is opening in April 2011. How exciting news is that?!

Cooking demos, pressure tests by the audiences and judging time. It was absolutely great fun and I've enjoyed the whole show.

Anna Gare at one of the demonstration theatre.

Proud sponsor of the show, Coles had a huge stand there and ex-contestants, Courtney, Alvin and Jimmy were there to demonstrate cooking and they tried really hard to answer all the audiences' questions.

Other than that, there were lots of fresh products for sale and samples to try.

Organic chips.

Fresh coffee beans.

Varieties of fresh breads.

Chocolate dipped strawberries. They looked gorgeous and mouth-watering.

More cooking skills and tips to share by the celebrity chefs.

Signing event by the three judges.

Kylie Kwong sharing her thoughts.

Hands-on cupcake decorating demostration.

There's a junior masterchef stand for the kids as well.

For lunch we had Charlie & co wagyu burger for $10. Yum! I'm not a fan of beetroot, but it was really delicious and I didn't taste the strong beetroot flavour at all.

And chilli sausage roll for $8.

I'm definately going to their stall at Westfield to eat that again. *slurps*

More stands outside the Royal Hall of Industries.

Sunbeam sponsor stand with hands-on cooking demonstrations by Skye Craig.

Oh I met Alvin in real person!

Adriano Zumbo, the legendary pastry chef in the show, was giving out tips in piping skills when baking.

He was telling us that you just need to practice and practice to master the skills and getting the consistency that you want.

Lastly a Merry Christmas tree with macarons for you. I really think that the event was really good, letting the audiences getting up close with the chefs behind the screen, sharing the basic skills and tips in cooking and baking, encouraging people to know more about food and cooking, exposing the audiences with the real effort that is given by the well known chefs in real person, and to know more about different food products and cooking utensils. It was really an awesome festival of cooking event and I had lots of fun!

Spice Gourmet Thai..

2010-12-09T21:44:00.001+11:00

Christmas is in the air peeps! I'm excited! It's the time to share some love. I don't mind to receive more presents but I'm getting headache with christmas shopping. Anyways back to the post. After reading a post in Chocolatesuze, I was eager to go try out Spice Gourmet Thai in Parramatta. Love Thai cruisine and always in search of a good one. So off I went there with Jen and M for dinner. We decided to enjoy a seafood dinner that night and we've ordered all seafood dishes.

For entree, we had the salt and pepper squid. *slurps* It was just mouth-watering, the squid was fried perfectly, absolutely crispy! For my personal preference, I would like to have stronger salt and pepper flavour.

Next we've also had the fried soft shell crab. Yum! The sauce made it really flavoursome, a little spicy, sweet and sourly taste. Delicious is the only adjective I can think of. I can't help it but to have more.

We were slightly greedy that night and also ordered steamed barramundi. We all enjoyed it alot. It was absolutely fresh, fragrant and appetizing. The spices with lemon that they used really brought up the flavour of the fish. Although we've waited for quite a while for the dishes to be served, we definately agreed that the food there was awesome, worth the visit. Thanks Suze for the recommendation. Our total bill for the dinner was about $70 for the three dishes.

Ratings: 8/10
Address: Shop 1, 71 George Street, Parramatta NSW 2150

Eastbank Cafe Bar Pizzeria..

2010-12-06T20:12:00.000+11:00

Well the other day I was lucky enough to enjoy a dinner gathering with friends at Circular Quay, with the view of Harbour Bridge. Really nice view and the ambience there was just relaxing. We went to Eastbank Cafe Bar Pizzeria, it's a Modern Australian and Italian restaurant.

Looking through the menu.

My friend ordered the seafood linguine, wrapped in paper and baked. Very fancy indeed.

The look inside. Wow, there was definately lots of ingredients, generous portion of seafood. Well the taste was really strong and fragrant, but I think the linguine was slightly too soggy.

For me, I've ordered for the slow roasted duck breast, served with herb crepe stuffed with mushroom duxelle, sauteed wild mushrooms and a porcini cream.

Yum! The duck breast was cooked perfectly, keeping the juicyness and tenderness of the duck meat. It went really well with the mushroom and the sauce. The portion was just nice for me.

We've also had the grilled black angus beef tenderloin with creamy mash potato, wilted spinach, confit field mushroom and truffle reduction. The beef was moist and tender.

And another one, pizza on the specials menu. It was chicken, potato and herbs, if I'm not mistaken. The pizza base was thin and crispy. Awesome view, nice atmosphere, good company and good food.

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 61-69 Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

Adelaide Visit..

2010-12-03T00:29:00.001+11:00

During my trip to Adelaide, I've been to few places around the city and Kangaroo Island and here's a little summary on the the food that I've came across. Weather in Adelaide was really similar to Melbourne's weather. The architecture of the buildings around the city really attracted my interest, keeping the British colonial heritage. Anyway first place was definately the Adelaide central market. I've read about this market in GrabYourFork before and it was definately a place worth a visit.

Lots of deli choices to choose

Fresh vegetables and fruits

Fresh fine foods

Different kind of cheeses

Like it how they design the stall, attracts more people.

Fresh breads for sale. They really looked so fresh and yummy.

Or maybe hang out at the cafe for a cuppa coffee.

Sandwiches or salads for lunch?

Chocolates.. handmade ones!

Breakfast at one of the cafes in Rundle mall. It was just normal.

Smoked salmon omelette with rocket salad in balsamic dressing.

Lunch at Chinatown food court. Teriyaki chicken with salad.

Bread crumbed fish and chips at Kangaroo Island Seafood Restaurant in Kingscote.

Seafood basket. Fresh and nicely fried.

Finally some chinese food. You have no idea how much I missed that after my Kangaroo Island trip. Sweet and sour pork ribs.

Fried pumpkin with salted eggs. It was totally mouth-watering, yum!

And of course dessert time as well. We went to this dessert cafe at 158 Gouger Street, Adelaide.

Glutinous rice balls in black glutinous rice dessert.

Sambal..

2010-11-28T21:15:00.000+11:00

Well this is a must go place for some authentic Malaysian food in Sydney. I had my best char kuey teow there! Anyway I was introduced to this little jewel hidden at Macquarie Park, called Sambal. It's also one of the restaurants listed in the Good Food Guide 2011. They also have some specials during lunch hours. Since it's at the business park, they tend to get really busy and packed during lunch hours. So I've avoided that and went during weekend. It was so good that I had to bring my sis who came over to visit.

For the first attempt, I went there with Jen on a Sunday lunch. The specials during that time was Mee Rebus. It's boiled egg noodles with sweet creamy curry sauce with fried tofu, boiled egg and bean sprouts.

We've also ordered the char kuey teow (spicy). It had blown me away, the taste was totally awesome, very similar to the ones we have in Malaysia. Although it didn't have all the same elements like the little clams and chinese sausages, it was still really yummylicious and strong authentic flavour! The best char kuey teow I had so far in Aussie.

Time for some desserts. We tried the ice chendol. Yum! The strong flavour of palm sugar and the coconut milk, heavenly good. The chendol was nice as well.

The sago pudding with coconut milk and palm sugar. Jen absolutely love this alot. It's just so authentic.

For the second attempt, we went for dinner. We've purposely ordered the chicken rice instead of the normal white rice. It was fragrant and moist. Yum!

Kangkung belachan. It's water spinach cooked with prawn paste. Spicy and totally mouthwatering. It was really appetizing and went well with rice.

Stir fried seafood with tofu. I loved it so much. One of my favourites in Malaysia. It tasted really authentic, the tofu was awesome! It was so soft and fragrant.

We've also tried the signature Sambal prawns, king prawns cooked with salty eggs, eggplant and chilli. The prawns were cooked perfectly and it was tantalizingly delicious. Love the strong flavours!

Of course we wouldn't missed out on desserts as well. We had the ice chendol, sago pudding and also the ice kacang. Sweet, cold and full of ingredients. I had a great time enjoying all the food there and will be back for more when I have my cravings.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: Shop 7, 285-287 Lane Cove Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113

GoodLife Modern Organic Pizza..

2010-11-25T19:19:00.000+11:00

I was away last week. Jen and I went to Adelaide! It was my first time there and I didn't get to do much in the city cause we spent most of our time in Kangaroo Island. Anyway the first night that I arrived in Adelaide, I had dinner with a friend there and we went to try out Good Life Modern Organic Pizza. Thanks for the nice recommendation and I loved it! Very nice and cosy restaurant. We were seated at the backyard area and it felt really homey. Great attentive service from the moment we stepped into the restaurant.

Well I have to mention that their organic pizza means that they are from a method sustainable farming that works with nature, without the use of fertilisers and pesticides. That means better in taste! According to their information on their menu, all their pizza bases are prepared by SA's own laucke organic flour, filtered water, fresh yeast and aged more than 24 hours.

Well as you can see, they've won quite a few best pizza awards for the past few years. It means that they are really good. I was so excited when I was looking through the menu.

It was really dark in there and we only had the little candle light on the table. This is the best photo I can get. Luckily my friend helped me with this too. Anyway we've ordered two pizzas to share, the swiss brown mushrooms which is on the right and free ranged roasted duck on the left. The swiss brown mushrooms was marinated in organic balsamic vinegar with an organic lemon aioli garnish. Yum! The pizza base was definately awesome, the juicyness of the fresh mushrooms blended together so well with the garnish on top. With the roasted duck pizza, there was also shitake mushrooms and spring onion ginger jam. This pizza had a punch of asian flavours in there and surprisingly it was really good. The duck was roasted until crispy. Can't stop myself from having more.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: 170 Hutt Street, Adelaide, South Australia.

Azuma Patisserie Cafe..

2010-11-24T14:21:00.003+11:00

I love desserts and I'm happy that I got introduced to this little cafe. Thanks Mich! Anyway I've been there quite a few times now and also brought my sis there and we had a lovely time there chilling out with some pretty desserts and relaxing environment.

Love the strawberry layered cake. Nice strong fresh strawberries in between the layers and the sponge cake was soft and fluffy.

I've tried the green tea matcha latte. It's basically green tea with milk, just perfect for me cause I don't really drink coffee. It was nice and not too sweet which was great. I would prefer to have a stronger flavour of the green tea powder.

Meanwhile, sis tried the iced green tea matcha latte. The nice thing about it is that you get to pour in the sugar syrup yourself, so you can decide on the sweetness of it. Brilliant idea.

You can also take some of their japanese fahion magazines to read up while indulging yourself with the lovely desserts. Or perhaps a nice chit chat over an afternoon tea.

The other time I went there and tried their hojicha. I've googled it and it's basically is set apart from other japanese green teas because it was roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal. It had a strong after taste which was really fragrant and subtle.

I've also tried the chocolate mousse cake. I would say it was pretty average on this.

The earl grey chiffon cake. It had a really strong after taste which was so good and the cake soft and fluffy.

Another afternoon tea with more gossips.

They also have macarons. It was just normal.

I've also tried the panna cotta which was yummy! It was soft and creamy. I was looking at recipes for panna cottas and I shall attempt to make that sometime soon.

Chestnut tarlet. It was way too sweet for me.

The green tea yogurt ice cream. It seems that the combination of green tea and yogurt doesn't fit quite well. The soury taste of the yogurt was overpowering the flavour of the green tea. Or maybe it's just me. Anyway I still love going this relaxing patisserie cafe. And also thumbs up for the nice presentation of their desserts.

Ratings: 6.5/10

Address: 501 George Street, Regent Place Shopping, NSW 2000

Housewarming party..

2010-11-12T23:17:00.000+11:00

Here's just to share a lovely housewarming party by my dearest friend, Winnie in Sydney which had a theme of Malaysian hawker's food. It was totally brilliant and all the guests were full and satisfied, from main course to desserts. I've made bubur chacha for the party too.

Fried vermicelli which was totally delicious!

Ta da! The homemade satays made by her fiance.

Yes he was cooking right on the spot at the balcony. Fresh and juicy tender meat.. yum!

I have to mention about the peanut sauce that he made from scratch. Absolutely mouth watering! Can we have more please?

Yummy fried chicken wings. Somehow I seldom have homemade chicken wings, cause I normally make grilled chicken wings instead. So of course I was enjoying it lots!

Beef curry.. Thick creamy and spicy curry.

Fried won tons. Her signature dish and it was damn good!

Can you imagine they prepare all these themselves? Thanks for the awesome hawkers food. They were totally superb! Maybe I should ask for the recipes to share with you. Anyway have great weekend guys!

Bar Sirocco..

2010-11-11T23:20:00.001+11:00

I love going out for breakfast during weekends. It's a time for gathering for some girly gossips or just simply to absorb some great sunshine. Anyway Jen and I headed to Bar Sirocco for brekkie. They have some specials on menu and be sure to check them out. It's a really cosy and friendly restaurant. I was happy with the friendly and attentive service as well.

Fresh juices to start out. Love it!

Jen ordered one of the specials, thick pork sausages with homemade baked beans, potato cake and fried egg on top. Thumbs up for the homemade baked beans. It was rich and hearty with generous portion. The pork sausages were thick and fragrant. $16

I've tried the light and healthy breakfast, with smoked salmon, avocado and tomato on balsamic vinegar with ricotta cheese. Simple yet nice combination in flavours. So there you go! A way to enjoy the weekend with your loved ones and to soak up some sunshine. Have a great weekend ahead and hopefully with some nice weather.

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 38-62 Booth Street, Annandale NSW 2038

Baroque..

2010-11-07T13:47:00.000+11:00

Remember that I've shared about La Renaissance before that? This is actually a unique french restaurant opened by the same owner, the Charkos family. It's called Baroque at the Rocks. Anyway I went there with Jen and two other friends for a joint birthday celebration without knowing where we were heading to. Thanks for the little surprise.

Some fresh homemade bread to start out the meal. It saved me from having gastric problem cause we actually waited for ages before the food was served.

Finally our entree arrived. To be honest I don't remember what was this dish called. Something like foie gras. Sorry but I didn't really know how to enjoy this.

Confit duck legs with grilled leeks and cucumber for Jen. Great presentation and some great flavours there. The portion was not enough for him. $29

I had the barramundi with eggplant caviar and piperrada. The barramundi was cooked nicely and kept the moisture of the meat, with the crsipy skin on top. The sides just added on more flavours into it. $29

Confit shoulder of Bangalow sweet pork. Great presentation and the pork was cooked just right. $29

Dessert time! I've ordered the Voltaire. It's vanilla cheesecake with mixed berries wrapped in white chocolate. How pretty is that. It did taste as good as the look. $13

Jen had the Zulu, it's 72% chocolate mousse, ganache with salted caramel and chocolate biscuit base, finished with a mini chocolate macaron on top. Rich and creamy chocolate mousse. Yum! $13

Blood orange souffle with Valrhona chocolate sorbet and macaron. It was awesome! Soft and fluffy and my friend enjoyed that. $16

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 88 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000

Pepper Lunch..

2010-11-04T11:10:00.002+11:00

I've passed by this shop, Pepper Lunch, all the time along George Street and decided that I should give it a try, for the second time together with my sis. I think they have a really interesting concept. You can taste the spicy pepper flavour and butter along with your rice.

I had the beef pepper rice, $8.30 and added on extra $2.50 for a bowl of miso soup to come along with the meal. When the meal was served, it was sizzling hot and you just have to mix it around to let it cook.

Sis had the cut steak with chicken combo, $16.50 with miso soup and rice. It was a really huge meal.

The first attempt I had the kimuchi beef pepper rice. Yum! Love it. The strong kimchi flavour added some spice into the rice. Cheap and satisfying meal.

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 537-551 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe..

2010-10-31T17:19:00.000+11:00

The other day I went Guylian Chocolate Cafe with my sis when she was around. That was my second attempt there, but sadly it wasn't as pleasant as the previous experience. We were quite disappointed with the service at that time. We were being told that there was no belgian waffles when we wanted to order one. But the next thing, we actually saw other patrons at the next table were having waffles half an hour later. It would have been great that the waitress just told us that we needed to wait longer for it cause it was my sis from Melb who wanted to have it. Not only that, we were being left unattended there for quite a while. Despite all these, I still managed to enjoy myself with the lovely chocolate treats and more photos with my dearest on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Guylian hot chocolate. A slice of chocolate into the cup and added my hot chocolate into it.

Very thick creamy and rich chocolate flavour.

Guylian baked chocolate cake with the signature ganache, served with a scoop of whte chocolate and raspberry ice-cream on the side. The chocolate cake was moist and rich in flavours. Totally for chocolate lovers.

Soup of the day, asparagus soup with sliced baguette to fix our savoury cravings. It was kind of disappointing on that cause the soup was all diluted. So I guess I'll still stick with the chocolates and desserts.

Ratings: 5/10

Address: 91 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000 NSW

Ice Cube Seafood Grill and Bar & Anderson's of Denmark Ice Cream..

2010-10-30T08:17:00.000+11:00

I'm finally free from exams! Never ending of studying I should say. I had a really tough week and I'm glad that it's all over now. Anyway here's a quick post to share with you on how I actually being spoiled by Jen after my exam. We decided to try out Ice Cube Seafood Grill and Bar at the Imax theatre building. The view at the restaurant was awesome! We were being seated beside the glass door, with the whole Darling harbour view in front of us. Great service as well, maybe cause we were there for early dinner.

We've ordered the huge hot and cold seafood platter for two. There's garlic butter grilled lobster, love it! And fried fish and chips, pan fried marinated prawns, salt and pepper squid, smoked salmon, mussels, oysters, more cold prawns, and crab! That's $130 for the whole plate, and we've got the entertainment card which allowed for 25% discount. Pretty good for a seafood meal.

Anderson's of Denmark blood orange sorbet ice cream with waffle cone for dessert in front of the Darling Harbour. What more can I ask for? Loving it!

Ice Cube Seafood Grill and Bar

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 31 Wheat Road, Sydney 2000 NSW

Anderson's of Denmark Ice Cream

Address: Shop FC11, Harbourside Shopping Centre, Sydney 2000 NSW

Meet Fresh Taiwanese Dessert House..

2010-10-23T16:43:00.000+11:00

There's a new Taiwanese dessert shop in Chinatown, it's called Meet Fresh Taiwanese Dessert House. In fact I went there with few friends when they were having the buy one free one deal. So we've joined the crowd with the long queue outside the shop under the hot sunny weather. Can't wait to enjoy some desserts.

A taste of traditional Taiwanese dessert.

We all ordered the same signature dessert of the shop.

I'm a huge fan of grass jelly. Love it! The nice cooling Taiwanese dessert.

There's taro balls, sweet potato balls *my guess*, grass jelly, crushed ice with milk. So refreshing and sweet. The chewiness of the taro balls and the softness of the grass jelly, just blended together so well. Yummy bowl of signature dessert, I was able to finish the whole bowl myself. I must go visit Taiwan someday, just for the food.

Ratings: 8/10
Address: 13 Goulburn Street, Haymarket NSW 2000

Sydney Fish Market..

2010-10-18T09:02:00.001+11:00

One thing I love about Sydney is the Sydney Fish Market. Amazing amount of fresh seafood produce. I've heard that there's restaurant there too, but haven't get to try it out yet. Thanks sissy for the photos. It's actually really cool to visit around the market. There's so much to explore and eat. My lttle tip is to go there earlier, before noon time, so that you can avoid the large crowd.

Sashimi time!

Scampi is something new for me. Haven't really tried it before.

There's much more, lobsters, mud crabs, prawns, and different kinds of fishes.

This is the "Must Eat" salmon and tuna sashimi set. I personally prefer salmon and it was really fresh and I couldn't get enough of it.

Fresh oysters with lemon. You can get this for $8 for half dozen of them. Not a huge fan of oysters, but it was really fresh.

Seafood platter for two. And yes, sis and I went for the asian style, ordered that with rice. Surprisingly it turned out really yummy and satisfying. There's fried prawns, oysters in two ways, fried calamari, chinese style bbq squid, and scallops. That can be shared between three person.

More oysters and lobsters. Love them to the max!

Address: 200/9 Bank Street, Sydney NSW

Albee's Kitchen..

2010-10-14T13:02:00.000+11:00

There are times that I have serious cravings for "pan mian" from my hometown. I've missed it so much, and it's really rare that I get to find it around in Aussie. The other day my friend was introducing a malaysian restaurant at Campsie, called Albee's kitchen. And off we went there to try out, even brought my sis there when she came over. I'm already feeling hungry by just looking at the photos. A little note is that it's also one of the restaurants listed in the Good Food Guide 2011 for Sydney. So there you go.

How authentic and classic menu they have. They also have different specials on their menu everyday.

It's really a Malaysian culture. Because of the hot weather for the whole year, we always have "chinese leong cha", aka chinese herbal drinks that can be ordered in restaurants and cafes. We can find it there!

The "pan mian" that I'm refering to. It's a hokkien style egg noodle soup, comprises hand-kneaded pieces of dough.

The soup base was awesome and we were definately enjoying it. The closest taste to hometown that we can find so far.

Hokkien mee. Thick yellow noodles stir fried with dark soy sauce and pork lard. So good!

Fish head noodles. This was totally superb, spot on! two thumbs up! I love it so much, the soup base was totally awesome. It was creamy, strong flavours and the sourness of the vegetable pickles. Surprisingly you get a huge amount of fish meat in there. My mum will definately love this too. It was a very generous portion and I managed to finish the whole bowl.

Watan hor, or you called it sar hor fun in some of the Malaysian restaurant. Fried thick noodles with egg sauce. Love it! My old time favourite.

Yee mee soup. The thick yummy soup base was totally oh-so-good! All of them has a average price of $10 each. And you'll get great satisfaction with every dish. You'll also find some really authentic home cooked dishes like pandan leaves wrapped chicken and bah kut teh. Cheap prices, good quality food and generous portion at a family restaurant.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: 282 Beamish Street, Campsie NSW 2194

Makoto Sushi Bar..

2010-10-10T21:23:00.000+11:00

There's a japanese sushi shop that I've found when I came over to visit Sydney for the first time two years ago. It's Makoto Sushi Bar at Liverpool Street. I went again when my sissy came over. Well the thing is that there aren't many sushi train places in Melb. So this shop definately attracts my attention.

Salmon avocado roll $3.60

Specials: Octopus nigiri $3.00

My sis's favourite, Japanese edamame green bean pillow $3.60

Takoyaki balls $3.60

My favourite, unagi nigiri $3.60

Teriyaki chicken udon $9.80

Samples decorated at the main entrance.

More and more.. I love the sushis there cause they are all really good and fresh with great presentation.

Also check out for their specials, they have different types of specials everyday.

Yellow fin tuna nigiri

We've tried one of their today's special sushi set $27.50 which was awesome! Enjoyed all of them.

Also to mention their nabeyaki udon $9.80, it was really good, thumbs up. The soup was so rich in flavour. I was impressed.

One of their dessert on the menu, sesame ice-cream with mochi, jellys and red bean paste. $5.60 A nice way to end my japanese sushi cravings. A small note is to try to avoid the peak hours as it might get really packed. I think I'm having the sushi cravings again.

Ratings: 8.5/10

Address: 19 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000

Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop..

2010-10-05T20:17:00.003+11:00

Summer days is coming soon. I can feel it! Well the weather here in Syd is much warmer as compared to Melb. It's time for summer clothings already. This year's spring/summer fashion is all about neutral colours. Sorry I kind of forgot this is actually a food blog. :D Okay back to real stuff. Since it's nice warm weather, let's have ice-cream! I was at Manly beach the other day and I spotted a nice awesome ice-cream shop, Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop. I know that it's a very famous brand from the States for a long time. But I only got to know about this brand few weeks ago, and I'm glad that I do now.

Check out their freshly baked waffle cones.

Decision time! It was a nice and warm weather on that day. We had to queue to buy ice-cream.

Just in case you're interested to have a casual job in an ice-cream shop, how cool is that!

Little merchandise corner of Ben & Jerry's logo collections. Lots of cute cows.

Sweet cookies and cream with chocolate theraphy with the freshly baked cone. Awesome is the only description. Chocolate theraphy is definately for chocolate lovers. It's rich, creamy and chocolatey. Cookies and cream was great with chunks of cookies in it. The waffle cone is my favourite. How great to have nice cold ice-cream during the warm weather. They also sell the ice-cream in pint tub or mini cups that you can take away. There are also other selections on the menu like shakes, sundaes, smoothies and others. Love Ben & Jerry's. Love Manly.

Ratings: 10/10 (p/s I love ice-cream!)

Address: Shop 5 & 6, 25-27 South Steyne, Manly, 2100

Website: http://www.benandjerry.com.au/flavours/flavour-locator/

Malaysia Fest 2010..

2010-10-01T23:28:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I went for the Malaysia Fest 2010 at Tumbalong Park around at Darling Harbour area. It's a festival hosted by all the Malaysian Student Societies around Sydney. I was committee of the Malaysian society back in uni and I've never come across with such a huge Malaysian celebration in Melb. Great job for the Malaysian community in Sydney's universities. It felt really awesome to see so many people enjoying the Malaysian culture and food. Best of all, the weather was just awesome to hang out under the sun with lovely cool breeze. I went along with Jen and two other friends.

Look at the crowd.. Isn't it amazing?

This stall caught my attention straight away!

Ta-da, apam balik, aka kap biang! My old time favourite back in my hometown in Sabah. Miss it so much! There's peanuts, sugar and butter in there. That's what normally we have back home. They also put some creamy corn in there with this one, which was equally yummy too! It was $7 for two. Who cares when I'm craving for it?

Satay chicken with peanut sauce.

More satays and sambal pulut from other stall. These satays wih the peanut gravy were awesome! Sambal pulut is simply glutinous rice with sambal prawn in banana leaves. Love it too.

Traditional nasi lemak with coconut rice wrapped in banana leaves. The coconut rice was totally rich in flavour, just like the ones we have it at the mamak stalls in Malaysia. Mouth-watering!

Martabak with curry sauce and peanut sauce as well. I've never really had martabak before, it was like roti canai wrapped with some meat in between. Nice one to try.

I have to admit that Jen and myself were bit greedy at that time and we wanted to try it all. So this is what we bought just within minutes despite of the long queues. Amazing! Oh, also to mention that we've tried the sambal fried vermicelli, sugarcane juice, roti canai and popiah. Little disappointed with the sugarcane juice cause it was rather diluted. All the others was great!

Yes this is what four of us had for lunch on the ground under the sun. Good food, good company with nice weather. We were all full and satisfied with all of the food. Of course it was not cheap for that, if you want to compare it with Malaysia. But to be able to have these lovely food with such similar taste in foreign land, what more can you ask for? Awesome festival!

Insadong..

2010-09-30T22:43:00.000+10:00

During my birthday month, Jen brought me to his favourite cosy korean bbq restaurant at Eastwood, it's called Insadong. It's more like a family restaurant, so it's rather quiet during the weekday nights. We went there twice in a month.

Some side dishes for us to start out our meal. We went for bbq for that night, so we've ordered for plum wine to go with it.

We've ordered for a deluxe bbq set, a standard meal for four of us with extra rice. There was mussels, beef skirts, squids, octopus, prawns and marinated pork and beef. $60

All ready to go!

I was actually amazed that they actually used charcoal underneath, and with an huge canopy style exhaust fan at every table. The meat tasted better with the charcoal smell. I really like the beef skirts and having it together with the given miso bean paste and lettuce.

The other time we've also tried the fried mackerel. It was delicious. The meat was moist and tender. Best of all, it wasn't oily at all. Should try that. $21

Or maybe try the octopus ball. It was equally good.

Ratings: 8/10

Address: 223 Rowe Street, Eastwood NSW 2122

Cupcakes on Pitt..

2010-09-30T22:15:00.000+10:00

I've previously wrote about cupcake shops around in Melb, Cupcakes fever. Actually fell in love with cupcakes. Anyway when sissy was around, we've tried out one of the cupcake shop at Chatswood, called Cupcakes on Pitt. We just had our late lunch and off we went for more desserts. The original shop is at Pitt Street, and this is their newly opened branch.

Totally got attracted by the beautiful decorated shop.

Look at the cupcakes tower. Lots of love there.

Cute box of cupcakes!

Ta-da! We bought the dark chocolate, chocolate strawberrie and cream and blurberry. I went for the blueberry one, which is quite unusual for me cause I didn't go for the chocolate one. :P But it was good, still prefer the dark chocolate one. The icing part is just mouth watering. We enjoyed ourselves there.

You can't go passed this lovely decorated cupcakes shop. Don't quite remember how much was it per cupcake. Maybe i'm bit biased here. I still prefer The Cupcake Family in Melb. Their cupcakes is just awesome, moist and always good. I just love the flavour choices there.

Ratings: 7/10

Address: Shop 221A, Westfield Chatswood, NSW 2067

Hello Happy..

2010-09-26T10:26:00.000+10:00

It's time for some dessert! Definately can't say no to dessert. Sissy loves this bread and cake shop in Sydney, it's called Hello Happy. You can find this in alot of places, anyway we had a take-away for a few slices of cakes from the branch in Chatswood. Of course you can have a relaxing chill out with a cup of coffee with some breads or cakes just at the cafe corner.

Courtesy of my sissy for the photos..

Look at the cakes. Well decorated. It makes you wanting them all!

After much discussion, we had the green tea with red bean roll, black forest cake and cheesecake. Aren't they pretty? I have to admit that the appearance for desserts is very important element to win my heart. However, it's better to eat them on the same day to prevent it from getting dry. That was what happened to us. I like the black forest cake. The cheesecake was just normal, maybe can get better ones elsewhere. The green tea roll was bit dry when we had it, but it was our own fault.

The favourite, sweet potato cake. It's totally moist, yummy and not that sweet for me. Highly recommended! There goes one lovely high tea moment during the weekend. The cakes are $4.50 per slice.

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 345 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood NSW 2067

Chat Thai..

2010-09-20T11:03:00.001+10:00

Whenever my dear sister come over to Sydney, it must be all about food. Her very first time to Syd, it was totally something like food festival for me. Also it was a nice opportunity to explore new places with her. Anyway this time I'm going to share about our new found place, Chat Thai at Haymarket. It's a thai restaurant with a hint of modern looking interior design. The very moment I stepped into the restaurant, I can see a few large frying woks at the front counter, along with boxes of different desserts. I definately have to mention about the huge crowd of people, we waited for one hour for a table for five. I was starving and wondering if it was really worth it or not. It better be. When we finally got a table and have a look at menu, it was huge decision time. Lots of selections to choose from.

Due to the varieties, we ordered for quite a few dishes to share around.

Chilli fried rice. If you're a huge fan of spicyness like my sister, you're definately going to love this. The fried rice was so fragrant, spicy and mouth-watering. Totally can't stop myself from eating it even though it's spicy for me. There's chicken, holy basil and lots of chilli in there. $13.90

Thai classic, Pad thai with chicken. It was sweet, and salty thin fried thin noodles with bean sprouts, chicken, eggs, shrimps and ground peanuts. Love the peanuts part, adding some crunchy texture. Nice way to chill down my tummy from the spicyness. $12

Dtom yum tuna. My old time favourite when I have Thai food, something like "tom yum" that we normally have. Anyway this one is the best one I can find so far. The flavour is the closest that can match the ones that I eat in my hometown. Creamy, strong, soury, spicy, appetizing and full of different ingredients in the soup. Totally love it! $20

Honestly I don't quite remember what is this dish, I actually had to check it online. Obviously I got quite carried away trying the soup instead. Anyway it's suki with pork. It's glass noodles stir fried with fermented tofu, chinese cabbage, chinese celery and water spinach. Quite average for this dish, probably cause I didn't like the combination and the fermented tofu was a bit overpowering in the dish. $12

Grilled marinated chicken wing with house speciality sauce. It was from the special menu. Some of my friends think that it was a little too salty for this. I normally like stronger flavour of cooking, so I was fine with the dish. The sauce was sweet and salty, very nice to have it with rice. $10

Glutinous rice with durian pudding on top. It was bit too sweet for me. But the nice, sweet durian flavour is just irresistable. $7

Super delicious and interesting dessert that we had, Par Tuhng Go for about $7. It's a must try! Totally love it. It's fried dough sticks with sangkaya which is made of coconut milk custard and pandan leaves. That mouth-watering sauce is the highlight for the dessert. I just couldn't describe it in words. I had this "i'm flying in the air" kind of feeling when I ate it. And one thing to note is this dessert is only on the menu after 9.30pm. Was it worthwhile for the one hour wait? Hell yes! But I'll definately try to go during other time for my next visit to escape the crowd. It's open from 10am to 2am. They actually have different branches at other places as well, at Randwick, Manly and Galeries Victoria in the city.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: 20 Campbell Street, Haymarket Sydney CBD

Ichiban Boshi..

2010-09-14T21:13:00.002+10:00

I've found a place for delicious ramen! It's Ichiban Boshi along George Street, just opposite of my favourite bookshop Kinokuniya. I'm not a huge fan of ramen, so I haven't tried alot before. But surprisingly enough it tasted really good! It can be really packed at times, but it's just opposite of the bookshop, a good way to spend sometime looking through some new released books while waiting.

I went with my friend who came over from Melb. She ordered for garlic flavoured soup based ramen with chasyu, bamboo shoots, spring onion and seaweed. The strong fragrant of the garlic just made the soup to be awesome. Strictly for garlic lovers. $12

Jen is ramen lover, so I had to bring him there. He ordered for tantanmen with minced meat, vegetables and egg for $12. The hot and spicy flavoured pork bone soup was just superb! The spicyness just made the ramen really appetizing. I would love to come back for this!

For me, I chose the Tokyo ramen, $9.30. The classic with egg, chasyu, bamboo shoots, seaweed and corn. The first time I had it, just loved it. The miso soup base was subtle in flavour. The ramen was totally full with texture. It was a really comforting and huge hot bowl of ramen for lunch. Don't feel surprised if you feel thirsty after the meal. However, it was really good ramen place that I'm definately coming back again.

Ratings: 8/10
Address: Level 2, Galeries Victoria Building,
500 George Street, Sydney NSW

The Little Snail..

2010-09-09T11:23:00.000+10:00

The last time I came to Syd, I went to Little Snail at somewhere close to Darling Harbour with Jen. Yes that's my very first time heading to French restaurant. Excited! My thinking of French cruisine is pretty much something like fine dining, work of art on the plate kind of thing. Well it's not really like that in Little Snail. Their food portion was fairly huge, presentation wise definately French looking! The very moment that I stepped into the restaurant, there's this really strong French feeling. Probably cause of the interior design and the furniture around.

Looking at the menu. Hmmm.. I went for the 3 course lunch special for $35.

I was trying to be adventurous and ordered for Pate du jour. It's basically duck liver pat flavoured port and brandy served with Melba toast. To be honest, I tried to enjoy it but sadly I didn't at all. The taste of the liver is just too strong for me.

The legendary snails marinated in fresh herbs and oven baked in garlic butter for Jen! I had a go on this as well and it was yummy, just have to get passed the thinking of "I'm actually eating snails". It was way better than the duck liver I had.

For mains, I've ordered the Prime Australian beef fillet served with potato mash, champignons and red wine jus. A really classic meal, I guess you can say it's bit boring. But it was cooked really well, the beef was juicy and tender. Love the champignons part, it has all the flavours.

Jen ordered the grilled Tasmanian salmon on mascarpone enriched risotto and puree of sweet peas. The salmon was awesome! Definately cooked perfectly, keeping the freshness and juicyness of the salmon. He loves the puree too.

Dessert time. I've ordered the handmade profiteroles with cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. It was just okay for me. I think you can better ones in Lygon Street!

Jen ordered sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and ice cream. A nice way to end the meal with a sweet and warm pudding. Well it was definately an enjoyable meal there and also to mention that the service is pretty good. Maybe you would want to skip the peak lunch hours or make a booking for a table.

Ratings: 7.5/10

Address: 50 Murray Street, Pyrmont, NSW

Phone: 02 9212 7512

Hurricane's Grill & Bar Steakhouse..

2010-09-05T20:35:00.000+10:00

When my sister came over to visit Sydney, there's one place that she definately wanted to try it out. That's of course Hurricane's Grill & Bar Steakhouse. It's somehow a speciality in Syd, at least we can't find it in Melb. They have two branches, one at Bondi Beach and one in Darling Harbour. I've only been to the one in Darling Harbour. One very important point, remember to book a table beforehand. The queue can be really long. Do tell me if there's better place for the ribs.

Here's the very huge full rack of pork ribs. $34 for full rack and $28 for half rack. The grilled pork ribs is just awesome. The flavour is just right for me. You can have it together with baked potato or chips. For the ribs that we had the other day, it was a little burned at the edges. Can say it to be good or bad. It was fine for me, extra flavours on it.

For a change, we've also tried the Boerewors, $29. It's traditional African sausages, with potato mash and tomato onion relish. The sausage is pretty good, and the sauce accompanying it is like BBQ sauce. I like the mash though. It helps to balance up the meaty meal. The relish is like sweet and sour sauce. By the time we finished up our meal, we were all full and satisfied.

Ratings: 8/10

Address: Harbourside Shopping Centre, Shops 433-436,

Level 2, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Phone: 02 9211 2210

Or 130 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach, Sydney

Phone: 02 9130 7101

Steersons Steakhouse..

2010-09-01T14:10:00.006+10:00

Well along my birth month, I've been to some nice places around Sydney for some catch-ups with friends. A very good excuse for me to enjoy a little bit more. First up, it was a nice steak restaurant, Steersons steakhouse along Bridge Street. To be honest we were not expecting it to be so pretty inside and all of us were underdressed. Anyway we were being greeted as we arrived at the restaurant. I've made a booking before that and table was all set up.

Homemade bread to start up the meal. I love it! It was soft and fluffy, tasted awesome with the butter. I guess I was little hungry at that time. $5.50 for the bread.

Then we had an entree for four of us to share. It's a seafood plate for two. There was fried soft shell crab, garlic prawns and calamari. Thumbs up for the soft shell crab. Delicious! Oh, thanks Jack for taking the photo. The dish costs $29.50.

I had the Oakleigh Ranch Wagyu Sirloin from Queensland, 280g for $37.50. It's served with mashed potato and red wine jus. I've ordered it for medium cooked. But unfortunately it was more like well done cooked. So the steak was bit too tough and dry. My other friend ordered the same and it was cooked perfectly.

Highlight of the night, Jen ordered for 1kg T-Bone Steak, Nolans Private Selection Gympie from Qld as well. Huge isn't it? That's for $59.50. Overall we had an enjoyable night trying out the nice steaks, wagyu for me!

Ratings: 7/10

Address: 7 Bridge Street, Sydney 2000

Lazy Ways to Prepare Lunch..

2010-08-29T14:34:00.006+10:00

Well lately I've been enjoying myself in cooking. You can do different kinds of easy meals with just a few items. I'm lucky enough to have Coles supermarket just 5 minutes away. So here's two of my favourites. Puff pastry and pasta salad.

I think I've shared this before. But anyways I'll share it again! All you need to make this is just a pack of Coles puff pastry, a can of mushroom and potato creamy soup and parmesan cheese. Boil the cream soup and then put it into the puffs. Then sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake that for 5-10 minutes until the cheese turns golden brown. There you go. A nice sunny afternoon with pastry and a cup of coffee or tea. Courtesy of my friend, Yiki on this easy recipe.

For a quick lunch, it can be tricky to prepare something for yourself, only one person. All I did was vegetarian pasta salad with a hot bowl of cream soup. With the pasta salad, just simply boil some spaghetti. Add some mixed salad leaves, Japanese sesame salad sauce and a bit of cracked pepper with diced garlic. If you like to have some meat in there, maybe you can add some sliced ham or bacon. Easy and healthy, isn't it? Have a nice weekend.

La Renaissance Patisserie Shop..

2010-08-25T13:37:00.008+10:00

I was lucky enough to explore this little patisserie shop at The Rocks with my dear sister and friends. It's called La Renaissance Patisserie at The Rocks. Yes it's in Sydney! Finally I'm writing about Sydney. Please do get excited together with me while I'm sharing this with you. Cause it just cheered me up by just looking at the photos.

My birthday cake. Isn't it pretty? It's made of passionfruit and raspberry. Don't remember what is the name of it though. It has a sourish after taste, it would be a nice combination if you're having something really sweet.

And with macarons as well. I'm not a fan of macarons but it was really nice, totally yummylicious.

The chocolate cake is called Zulu, with rich chocolate mousse and macaron biscuit and chocolate biscuit base. You'll like it if you're a huge chocolate fan. I did! Next to it is mini cheesecake mousse. Soft and fluffy.

This is Passion de Pierre. A layer of light, creamy passionfruit mousse and raspberry jelly. It was really sour for this one. Not my personal preference.

Classic cheesecake. With additional macaron as well. It was nice and moist but I think it was just average.

For chocolate lovers, this is called Tranche au Chocolate. Chocolate ganache with layers of flourless chocolate biscuit sponge and pistachio nuts. For me, it's a "to-die-for". I think it's something like Opera House in Lindt, or perhaps better than that. And also the blackcurrant macaroon. *love*

Creme Brulee. It was awesome! Totally creamy, rich in flavours, moist and just melts in your mouth.

Lots of desserts that just melts my heart with great company, lovely environment and nice weather. Nothing beats that kind of happiness. The price of the cakes ranges from $5.50-$9 and macarons are $10 per 100g, each macaron is about 20-25g. It's bit pricey i should say, however, definately worth a visit. A new found place that I will recommend to friends that visit Sydney.

Ratings: 9/10

Address: 47 Argyle Street, The Rocks, Sydney 2000

Shoya..

2010-08-19T15:45:00.004+10:00

It was a place that I wanted to try out for ages. Finally i went there and tried it out with a few friends on a Saturday lunch. It's Shoya Japanese restaurant located at 25 Market Lane, between Russell and Exhibition Street, Little Bourke and Bourke Street. The restaurant also has a review in the Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide. I've made a booking before that. So the moment that I arrived the restaurant with my friends, we were being greeted at the door.

It took me a while to make up my mind and decided to go for UME lunch set, $32.

Firstly, I had the entree salad dish. It was delicious, with eel and some pickles. It made me felt anxious to know how are the rest of the dishes.

Next up, it was steamed egg custard. There was so many ingredients in there. Again, I'm happy with it.

Some more entree dishes. The tofu was served cold and with lots of ginger on it. Not my cup of tea there. Love the spinach salad though.

Beautifully decorated sashimi. Definately a piece of art. But when i ate it, it was not as good as it looked. I think it was due to the white fish which was chewy. I'm a fan of sashimi, but this wasn't the best one.

Prawn and vegetables tempura. It was fried to perfection. It didn't feel oily at all and it tasted good with the sauce.

Grilled eel. One of my favourites in japanese cruisine. It was cooked nicely, but the taste was rather average.

By the time we had main course which is teriyaki beef with fried rice, I was all full. However, the beef tasted really good, the sauce was awesome and the beef was cooked just right. Don't think the fried rice was any good at all though. Maybe just the different ingredients being used.

Finally dessert to finish the huge lunch we had. Green tea ice cream. It was really good! I wonder if it's homemade. It was a good way to end the lovely meal. There was good and bad, but overall I was happy with the whole lunch for about 2 hours there. Great service too. Definately will recommend for the lunch menu there!

Laksa King..

2010-08-17T08:53:00.003+10:00

I'm having lots of fun on the month of August. I've been catching up with a few Malaysians in Sydney and it reminded me of Laksa King in Melbourne. They just moved into a new shop located at 320 Racecourse Road, Flemington. Not so sure if this is the updated address. I'll check that out. Anyway it's a place to try out for some really authentic Malaysian food.

The legendary laksa. I'm actually not a huge fan of laksa. So I can't really tell if it's really that awesome. But the strong flavours just reminded of my hometown.

Believe me or not. My first time having assam laksa is at Laksa King. Haven't tried it before in Malaysia. So I think the assam laksa that I've tried there has really rich sweet and sour taste with pineapple, cucumber, fish, onion and other ingredients. There's alot going on at the same time in your mouth with just one bite.

I still prefer the fish head/fish fillet vermicelli soup. The soup is so mild and with the sourness of vegetable pickles and sweetness of tomato. The flavour is just awesome! I would say it has a generous portion of the fish fillet as well. And best of all, the price is average, less than $10 for a bowl of laksa. Overall, I'll give that 7.5/10.

Birthdays..

2010-08-10T11:39:00.002+10:00

Yay! Happy Birthday to all the Leos out there! A month of celebration for me. It means more good food to explore around Sydney. Can't wait!

Love,

Mel

Cafe Giraffe..

2010-08-02T16:31:00.008+10:00

I went to this very funky yet cosy cafe with a few friends. It's called Cafe Giraffe. The location of the cafe is at 302 Little Lonsdale Street, Melb 3000. I simply adore the cafe. I went there for the third time and I still can't get enough of it. You can find cosy and laid back environment together with some interesting dishes on the menu.

Little decorations in the cafe.

There's a tree in the middle of the cafe.

The menu.

The warm pudding. It was yummy, warm and sweet. The pudding was soft and moist. If you like sweet stuff, it will be a great choice.

This was what I wanted to try! Cheese fondue with our own selection of sides, mushrooms and toasted bread. I was so excited to try it. But I was kind of disappointed, cause the cheese was too diluted, would prefer it to be more creamier.

I went there another time during lunch hours. I had mushroom risotto. The flavour was rich and cheesy. I felt really full after finishing the whole bowl. It wasn't a huge portion, but it was just right for me. $8 for this.

My collegue who is a vegetarian, had the sesame chicken noodles salad without the chicken. :) It tasted really awesome, love the sesame flavour in there and it felt refreshing after a salad meal.

Love the hot chocolate there too!

Homemade tiramisu. Love this! Very interesting concept as well. You do it yourself, simply take the scotch finger with some of the cream cheese and dip it in the coffee. Yummylicious! One thing to note is that the price is rather average. A good place for a cup of coffee or food with friends and enjoy the relaxing environment.

J Cafe..

2010-07-29T23:16:00.003+10:00

well i've just moved over to sydney so i guess i'll be starting a whole new chapter here with more exploration around sydney for good food, so better stay tuned! i will continue on with more of melbourne for the time being. the other day i went to j cafe, it's at 167 exhibition street, melbourne, vic 3000.

i've ordered for the sushi burger bento box. very interesting concept. i tried the kani croquette sushi burger. the croquette is made from potato, so it tasted something like hash brown. crispy outside and soft fluffy inside. surprisingly, it was delicious.

well the sushi burger box meal comes together with another side. i've ordered for the gyoza. there are other selections like tatsuta age, tonkatsu or kani croquette. the gyoza was grilled just right. i personally think it was a huge meal for myself, i ended up didn't enjoy so much with the gyoza.

my friend ordered for the kitsune udon. the udon was cooked perfectly, keeping the right texture. the soup base had mild flavour, great for a light meal. overall the food was above average, but price was rather expensive. the sushi burger box was $17 and the udon is $9.80. they had a minimum charge for per person.

Xiamen Szechuan Restaurant..

2010-07-17T10:15:00.006+10:00

during my china trip, we went to xiamen for two days. we went to have some really fantastic meal there. szechuan style restaurant and it was really good.

spicy appertiser.

fried fish with spices. yummy!

custard egg with seafood, mushroom and mixed vegetables.

sizzling pork

bok choy with mushrooms

vegetable soup. something different and it was really refreshing.

steamed tofu with salty eggs.

a whole table full with dishes and we had this kind of banquet meal all the time when we were with our relatives. that's chinese culture.

Australian Rainbow Trout Farm..

2010-07-17T00:30:00.004+10:00

i went for trout fishing during the autumn. well you can do that during the winter too, on a sunny weekend. the place is called australian rainbow trout farm at 26 mulhalls rd, macclesfield, vic. all you have to do is to get some fresh fish and you're all ready for a feast.

they have different sizes of trouts. pick the ones that you prefer and of course consider of the price as well. no matter what you get, you have to pay for it.

if not you can choose to fish at the salmon pond.

you will need to bring along some utensils along so you can start cooking at the bbq pit. one option to do with the salmon is sashimi! the staff will do the cleaning for you.

all you need is some onions, mushrooms, sauces, pepper. we brought along some bread and sausages as well.

be creative on the ingredients you like and here you are, hot and fresh grilled fish for lunch. it was great fun and also to mention that they have awesome views there.

Pie In The Sky..

2010-07-13T23:21:00.003+10:00

have you tried a very hot, full of ingredients and delicious meat pie? you can head to pie in the sky at 43 olinda monbulk road, olinda, vic 3788. i think it might be a great choice for a weekend treat during the winter. they actually won 15 times of award winning pies.

look at the choices they have on their menu. i was thinking hard.

they also serve a selection of pastries. i love pastry!

this is their very well known pie floater. the base is actually potato and leek soup and together with your selection of pie and this was the tandoori chicken and spinach pie, a gold medal winner pie. taste wise, i like the thick and creamy soup. for the pie, not my cup of tea. it was $14.50 for this meal.

this is what i've ordered. the beef burgundy pie, another gold medal winner pie. love this one! the chunky beef, thick creamy sauce and the pastry was crispy and not too thick. but i did add on some salt and pepper, prefer stronger flavour on it. around $8 for this pie. quite pricey i should say.

i still want to rave about the scones at miss marples. love it! a must try when you are in mount dandenong. but beware of the long wait for a seat there.

Kota Kinabalu Local Food IV

2010-07-10T15:12:00.005+10:00

there's more food that i had in kk and i want to share more with you. so here's another post for kk local food i had. there are lots of new restaurants around and shopping malls too.

my fav during the trip. milo dinosaur with lots of milo powder on top. did you know that the milo in malaysia is better than the ones in aussie? stronger taste of cocoa flavour. had this at papparich, newly opened in city mall.

ipoh chicken noodle soup. it was kind of average only. maybe can get better ones at other place.

ipoh chicken noodle with dry version at papparich as well. lack of flavour with this one.

homemade style hakka tofu.

we called this as sheng rou mian (in chinese)*love* this is a must try in kk. seriously.

my favourite meal. you can get this in lintas. forget about the fat and enjoy it! missing it so badly.

oldtown kopitiam roti bakar. toasted wholemeal bread with butter and kaya.

mangoes! and there are different types of mangoes. i had this harumanis back in kota belud.

you can't go pass bah kut teh in kk. there are a few places that you can find really good ones for example in the town area. i had this one in one borneo shopping centre. it was good enough to satisfy my cravings.

finally this one is fried thai style fish at wongkok. seafood is a must try in kk and it's cheap as well. they are definately fresh!

Sinful Cravings..

2010-07-09T21:57:00.005+10:00

me and my sister couldn't get enough of this in malaysia. we just adore and miss the flavour so much. seriously it's a sin if i don't have it when i go back malaysia. we can't find cheesy wedges here in aussie. and the taste of original chicken is kind of different here too.

Kota Kinabalu Local Food III

2010-07-09T20:11:00.005+10:00

thanks to my dearest good friend in kk, steph. she introduced me to this chinese restaurant in kk called "gui du" seafood restaurant near tanjung aru beach. i had heaps of yummy food there.

stir fried sayur manis with anchovies. you can only find this type of vegetables back in kk. love them so much!

roasted duck. *slurps* it might not be the best duck, but it has the home cooked taste.

steamed fish fillet. how fresh was the fish and the sauce was great together with the fish.

this is a must try! deep fried pork knuckle. it tasted something like i had in german cruisine. the oilyness of the pork was covered by the sourness of the sauce. tasted great!

the mango pudding was yummy for dessert. i enjoyed the meal and it was nice catching up with friends and to have good food at the same time.

Fifteen Melbourne..

2010-07-05T17:29:00.007+10:00

i can't believe that i haven't written anything about fifteen. yes it's jamie oliver's fifteen at basement 115-117 collins street, melbourne. you can enter via george parade. it's a fine restaurant with a team of professional chefs led by Tobie Puttock. for one moment, i thought i saw Tobie in the kitchen cooking, but it wasn't him. anyway this time i brought my parents there and this was my fourth time there. the service was great, probably we headed there rather earlier.

you'll get some fresh homemade bread to start out.

totally an open designed kitchen. you can see the chefs in action.

there are lots of choices on wines to complete your meal.

for entree, we had fried calamari. this one was really awesome! the calamari was fried perfectly and accompanied with the sauce aside. not sure what was it in the sauce, but there was taste of sourness of lemon. and to add on the note, it was a complimentary one cause of the long wait for our main courses. how nice was that!

finally the main courses arrived. i've ordered the pan grilled duck breast fillet with mash. totally amazed on how the duck was cooked.

mum had the baby snapper with scallops and mussels. mum loved it alot and it was quite a huge portion. freshness of the seafood and perfectly cooked.

dad ordered for the sirloin steak. the steak was cooked quite rare. it's just my personal preference. and i think it was lack of a bit of sauce to add on some flavour on it.

and of course we ordered dessert as well. it took us a while to make up our minds. i wanted to try them all. this is the chocolate mousse with pastry. love the pastry part and it was really rich in flavour. good one!

i purposely told the waitress that it was my mum's b'day and i was happy with the little arrangement they made for us. it was a piece of art. panna cotta with lavender cookie slice. and indeed we had a lovely dinner that night. to add on, i should mention that the price range for a main course is about $30-$40 and with dessert around $15. our total bill for the night was about $120. hope that helps.

Kota Kinabalu Local Food II..

2010-07-04T23:23:00.005+10:00

well the best thing about kk is that there's lots of different varieties of hawkers food. a very great guide that you can check it out as well at http://www.ahbing.com/top-15-best-food-at-kota-kinabalu/, it's written by my highschool friend, a really cool blog to check out. so the next time you're heading kk, be sure to try out all the top 15 best. i didn't get to try out all of them this time, just some food that i missed so badly. i think i'm torturing myself by writing this post cause i didn't have dinner just now. god please save me!

this is a really local one, preserved cuttlefish with kangkung also referred as water spinach with thick sauce and peanuts on top. it was so good. totally mouth watering.

barbequed squid with curry paste on top of banana leave.

chargrilled fish also known as ikan panggang. the freshness of the fish, the tenderness of the meat, spicyness of the paste, sourness of the lime and the strong taste of charcoal smell brings out the best flavour you can get on this dish.

steamed dumplings and of course the pan fried ones. they are the best dumplings that i've ever had in my whole life. not even the china ones can beat this. seriously. i almost wanted to cry when i had it.

stir fried clams with ginger and onions. my old time favourite seafood dish back in kk.

we've also tried different kind of clams cooked in kung po style. not sure what is it called again but it tasted something like squid.

hainanese chicken rice at wei ya. we love their chicken rice. the best part was the rice.

toasted bread with kaya and butter at damai. the best ever toasted bread. everyone in kk will know where is this. and it's a must try.

this one i must tell. you can't get this anywhere. i only get to eat this when i go back to my mum's hometown at kota belud. it's at a small shop in the market. they might not have the best environment but the noodles is the best, with the fresh steamed chicken and fried onions. the best dry noodles i had during my trip, maybe also alot of childhood memories there. and no kidding, i had two plates of this at one go. i'm starving now..

Kota Kinabalu Local Food..

2010-06-30T13:14:00.007+10:00

i've been away for a long family vacation and headed to malaysia, china and hong kong for almost one month. and for sure i've been eating alot during the trip. tried new things, had my childhood memories kind of food, and of course exploring better restaurants around. there's so much that i wanted to share but let's take it slow and easy. i need some time to digest all the food.

first stop we went back to kota kinabalu, sabah. my dearest hometown where i had all my childhood memories. it was nostalgic to be back to some really old places like my primary school. opppsss.. let me get back to the main point.

local tuaran noodles. it's bit oily but the best part is the noodles.. yum!

i still love dry noodles.. i had it with prawn meat dumplings..

grass jelly with carnation milk.. to die for when i'm back in kk.. the grass jelly is freshly made.

lime juice with salty preserved plum.. why don't we have it in aus?

coconut pudding.. we can only find this in kk, i think.. love it! you can also eat the coconut flesh at the same time. it's really refreshing when you have it after dinner. by just writing this, i'm missing the food already.. there's more coming up soon. stay tuned!

Lawson Grove Shop..

2010-05-29T09:38:00.006+10:00

this time i've ventured into a small alley in south yarra, a small cafe in a residential area called lawson grove shop for breakfast. it's at 1 lawson grove, south yarra. it was listed one of the best breakfast place in melbourne under the age food guide. it's a really small, relaxing and cosy cafe. i saw there were customers who brought along their dogs there for a cup of coffee outside the cafe. it was just a nice place to hang out during a weekend morning. love the design of the place. and one more note, they accept cash only.

the menu print out. there's not too many choices there, from simple and light to heavy meals of your preferences. they have good quality of free range eggs.

look at the hot chocolate that i've ordered. love it to the max! it was superb and most of all, the chocolate coated marshmellows, it was absolutely amazing. i'm not a huge fan of marshmellows in hot choc, but this was really good.

my friend ordered for the chai tea. nice hot cup of strong fragrant chai tea to warm up your stomach before the meal.

this is the full as a goog! really cool name. the usual big breakfast that we can find around with bacon, mushrooms, avocado, poached eggs with toast. it was delicious, totally mouth watering by just looking at it.

my friend tried the son-in-law eggs. it was wok-fried eggs with chilli, beanshoots, fresh herbs, their special kind of sauce in a lettuce cup. it was really interesting combination for an early breakfast. more of an asian style inspired breakfast with the freshness of the vegetables and the strong flavour from the herbs and sauce.

this is what i've ordered that day. the potato roesti. it was absolutely a piece of art. i can't stop myself from raving how awesome this lovely combination of ratatouille, cheese, spinach and poached egg. it was an eye-opening experience for me. the potato was crispy, together with the softness of the egg and the saltiness of the cheese, the flavour blends so well together with the sauce the have underneath. love it!

Shout Out..

2010-05-29T09:20:00.003+10:00

i've been writing for quite a while now. i've been constantly looking through on my changes that i made in my blogging style. i think i've done myself proud on the improvement so far. i wish i could do better. so it seems like i need some feedback on what i'm sharing. because i honestly have no idea on how interesting my blog is doing at the moment. thanks for the comments posted by some of my friends. it's really a booster for me to keep going. undeniably, i love food and love writing and sharing about it. by any chance, mind to spare some comments for me, probably apart from the capslock on wordings, i'm hopeless with that. i wanted to change it the other day, but somehow i felt that i wanted to keep the originality of me. probably change of background? more information on prices? more photos? change of format?

thanks for all the support anyways.

love,

mel

Le Petit Gateau..

2010-05-22T11:29:00.004+10:00

the other day i went to a small dessert cafe just close by to my office during lunch break with my friend after our cafe vue visit. it's called le petit gateau, located at 458 little collins street, melbourne city. the very moment that i stepped into the shop, i wanted to try out their lovely desserts displayed at the display counter. and they do sell different kinds of really awesome and mouth watering cakes. well you can tell that i love desserts.

it's not a very spacious shop but definately a place to try out for desserts or probably get one of their cakes.

we've ordered the chocolate mousse to try out. the cookie crumbs on top, layers of cream and mousse at the bottom and with some baileys liqour if i'm not mistaken. it was really yummylicious. the mousse was so smooth and together with the crunchiness of the cookie crumbs. i was like a happy kid at that moment. :) even the customer sitting beside us was asking what was it that we ordered. it looks interesting. i bet it was! love it!

Red Elephant Thai Restaurant..

2010-05-22T10:38:00.004+10:00

the other day i had a girls night out to a thai restaurant, it's called red elephant thai restaurant at 332 burwood road, hawthorn, 3122. the atmosphere of the restaurant is great, red/orange colour background. it was packed with people when we arrived, maybe cause it was a weekend night. price range from $15 to $30 per dish. serving is not really huge, but it was fine for a few girls to share. there's quite a varieties of dishes to choose from on the menu. from spicy to non spicy ones.

we've ordered the stir fried chicken with vegetables and cashew nuts. it was pretty good, great home cooked style of dish.

i love this one! it's the spicy soft shell crab. it tasted really delicious, the crab was slightly deep fried and then stir fried with vegetables and some sauces. absolutely awesome.

we've also ordered the beef salad. authentic salad dish in thai restaurant. there was bit of sourness and spicyness added, and it went well together with rice.

this is the chicken yellow curry. classic dish and it was pretty good. not too spicy but it was just right. it was awesome to have it together with rice. we've also ordered the green curry. i'm a huge fan of green curry and i enjoyed myself eating it. i should say the price was bit expensive and personally prefer to have other vegetables added into the dishes apart from carrots and capsicums. then again, it was a nice meal.

Snooty Fox..

2010-05-15T09:51:00.007+10:00

during the easter weekend, i managed to explore a few nice places and one of them was snooty fox, it's located at 1457 mt dandenong tourist road, olinda, vic. it's a really cosy and quiet restaurant and with generous portions of yummy meal.

firstly we had entree to share. the cheese and spring onions on toasted bun. the bun was huge! and the cheese was oozing out when i had my first bite. i think it was bit too heavy for me for the start.

for me, i've ordered the atlantic salmon fillet on preserved lemon mash with toasted almonds and brown butter sauce. the skin of the salmon was so crispy and the fish was moist and tender. love the mash with tiny bit of sourness of the lemon and the saltiness of the butter together with some crisp of the toasted almonds. thumbs up!

my friend had the lamb rack with bumblebee sauce, pink peppercorns with honey. looks delicious! according to him, it was pretty good too but not so satisfied with the serving portion.

this is a really huge dish! it's duckling twice roasted with creamy mash and spinach, covered with red wine and gooseberry reduction. it tasted really good and with a strong herbs flavour. it actually tasted like our asian style of herb chicken. no kidding.. definately a fulfilling meal.

also ordered the eye fillet steak with mushroom sauce on creamy mash. traditional dish for a western restaurant. and of course it was delicious! the meat was tender and juicy. can't go wrong with this one.

we were served a huge bowl of green salad each along with our mains. healthy way of balancing up our huge portions of mains.

we ended our dinner with a slice of choc nut fudge brownie served with warm chocolate sauce and kahluah ice-cream. yum! it was superb. great way to end my dinner.

Cafe Vue..

2010-05-09T09:32:00.007+10:00

the other day i went for a quick lunch at cafe vue! i was so happy to try it out at the cafe and i love it. it's at 430 little collins street, between queen and willian street. sorry for the low quality of photos this time cause i took them with my phone and the background was red. talking about the background, it's a small, bit of quirkyness, luxurious, trendy looking cafe. very relaxing and it's nice place to have a quick catch up with friends and enjoy some nice food there. the service was really good as well.

finally i stepped into cafe vue.

i had the duck cassoulet jaffle. it's basically a toasted sandwich with duck and beans. that's all i can guess on with the ingredients inside. it was crispy outside and keeping the inside moist. love the salad. it was so refreshing and blended the flavours really well.

my friend had the yorkshire pudding, with roast wagyu beef and potato mash and gravy. definately two thumbs up for this. the pudding was so soft and flavoursome and the beef was so tender and juicy that it just melts in your mouth when you eat it. the potato mash was really nice too. the serving is rather small but the attention to detail on every aspects of the food is really impressive. i want more!

Blue Mini Cafe...

2010-05-06T21:53:00.004+10:00

i was away for exam and i'm back! anyway this time i'm going to share about my experience at mornington peninsula, a cosy cafe along the nepean highway called blue mini cafe. the address is 1455 point nepean road, rosebud, vic 3939. it's about an hour drive away from melbourne if i'm not mistaken. nice place for a weekend getaway. the cafe serves quite a variety of choices on their menu and as you can see they are open for breakfast and lunch.

exploring through their menu. lots of choices. i was thinking hard on what to choose.

you can't go wrong with a hot cup of coffee to warm up your tummy.

i had a quick lunch and chose one of the curry wrap. also ordered a bowl of soup of the day and i think it ended up that they forgot about it and i had to cancel the soup because i was in a rush. but the wrap was pretty good, the curry was mild and the salad at the side was really good. good balance of flavour there.

my friend ordered the traditional bacon and eggs and lucky enough that gave him the option of changing the poached eggs to scrambled eggs. flavour wise, it was pretty good. we've also ordered some other meals. but they served the meals really slow that day. hence didn't take many photos of the food.

some cool pictures that they displayed in the room.

i think this is super cool and interesting display in the room. cool right? check out this place when you happen to pop by rosebud. enjoy!

Hog's Breath Cafe..

2010-04-23T22:58:00.004+10:00

i'm thinking about sweet stuff at the moment. so i shall share with you a nice place for dessert, it's actually a nice place for steak as well. it's hog's breath cafe, in fact it's an australian chain of steak house restaurants. i had my first time in brisbane and i was overwhelmed with the nicely cooked steak. i guess i wasn't a fan of steak before that, cause i haven't tried really nice steak before back in malaysia. so it was definately unforgettable moment for me. there are a few around melbourne, the one which i normally go to is at 699 warrigal road, chadstone, vic 3148.

this is the hoggies loaded potato skin the classic. this one is really interesting and yummy! it has crispy grilled bacon, melted cheddar cheese with honey sweet chilli sauce. $11.95 for that.

their famously known 18 hrs slow cooked prime rib steaks. remember to get the medium cooked one for traditional cut of 300g, cause it'll definately taste awesome with the tenderness and juicyness of the steak. this is with calamari rings, hog tail fries and vegetables. $32.95.

this is the lite cut of blackened prime rib, it's coated with the in-house blackened seasoning with adds a strong flavour to it. it costs $21.95 with extra pepper sauce of $2.

the reason for the lite cut steak is for the beloved dessert, the mississippi mud cake for $8.50. honestly the mud cake is just mouth watering. there's no reason to say no to this awesome dessert. it comes with hot chocolate sauce, vanilla ice-cream and fresh cream. putting a piece of cake with the sauce and ice cream into your mouth, it'll just complete the whole meal with a totally prefect ending note. i'm missing that lots!

Han Guuk Guan..

2010-04-23T22:28:00.005+10:00

one of the famously known korean restaurant in melbourne city is han guuk guan. it's at 13a, victoria street, melbourne. it's near the corner of exhibition street. they serve really generous portion with reasonable price. alot of students like to dine there. i went there a few times and i brought along visitors to try out too and they love it! their 'zha jiang mian' is quite famous too but i haven't tried it before. let me know if it's good.

anyway there were only three of us and we were greedy enough to order three dishes with rice and with free side dishes as well.

we had the sweet potato noodles. for me, it was cooked in more of chinese flavour. i've tried the more authentic ones at other place. but still it was good with lots of ingredients, i think it's vegeterian.

nice and hot kimchi stew. it's not a huge serve, and it comes together with a bowl of rice. it was pretty good.

lastly we also had a huge plate of sweet and spicy fried chicken. it was really a massive portion for just the three of us. but guess what, we managed to finish the whole plate cause it was really yummy! two thumbs up for this dish. all in all, we paid for around $60 for the three of us and with really full tummy.