Shoya..

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..

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..

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..

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..

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..

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..

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.