A Gastronomical Voyage in Melbourne

Cafe Sydney

2009-08-22T18:35:00.004+10:00

Don't be deceived by the name. It is absolutely one of the best places that you can go to for wonderful unpretentious seafood dining in Sydney.

Set on top of the old Sydney Harbour Customs House. You can't beat the view.

It's beautifully modern and airy in the restaurant.

Sshhhh... I also heard that it is a favourite hiding place for secret rendezvous...

Cafe Sydney

Fifth Floor, Customs House

31 Alfred Street

Circular Quay, NSW

02 9251 8683

$10 Discount Voucher for takeaway

2009-08-05T11:16:00.003+10:00

Received an email from Menulog regarding a $10 discount offer for all GVIM visitors... details below.

I have used Menulog from time to time to search for restaurant but not for takeaway so far...

There is a few restaurants in my area that deliver.... Cafe Saigon, Gurkhas. Hmm might give it a go in the future.

Discount voucher details:

Menulog Restaurant Delivery Guide has 20,000+ restaurants.

You can order home delivery online (600+ restaurants)

Get $10 off on your first delivery order using this voucher code: 847442

Note:

Available for participating restaurants only (which display the “accepts vouchers”) sign

All GVIM visitors can use this on their first order on participating restaurants

Used for a minimum purchase of $20

Valid until November 2009.

DIY High Tea on Saturday

2009-08-04T10:35:00.003+10:00

Apart from some cakes from Brunetti's, the rest were home made by my colleague and her friends. Home made high tea with the ladies... so very elegant and adult!

Living

2009-07-16T11:23:00.003+10:00

Between working, travelling, starting a business, entertaining and sleep, there's not much time to blog.... So I've reverted to Twitter to provide this blog with updates, where ever I am.... Bear with me!! I will complete a proper post before the year is through!! xxx.

Follow me @Kazmic

Tony Tan Unlimited

2009-03-12T11:25:00.004+11:00

What can I say… Tony Tan has so grown on me that I look forward to every cooking class that I have with him. So far, I have taken two classes with my sister at Tony Tan: the Asian Fusion and the Spices Workshops.

The Asian Fusion class was more like a dinner party where Tony demonstrated the recipes, we watched, made notes and drank wine.. lots and lots of Brown Brothers wine. No we didn’t get drunk but some of the other crew got loud. Getting drunk at these events is really not recommended as it really makes the guest chefs angry as they feel it’s disrespectful. So pace.

The Spices Workshop was an intense 5 hour hands-on workshop where you basically accept the role of assistant or sous chefs for Tony: grinding, chopping, mixing spices. We also learned to de-bone our own spatchcocks / baby chicken with success. Although you kind of felt that you were thrown in the deep end in the beginning with that one… He does it in maybe 5 to 10 minutes. We did it at best in 20.

We also learned how to tie our apron the professional way – straps in the front so that you can fold a tea towel through it for easy access. We worked a lot with knifes in the class and was told the right way of carrying it to minimise accidents is to carry the knife flat against your thigh. Always say “Behind” when you’re walking around in the kitchen. In Asia, we call out “boiling water” in Chinese.

Tony is an endearing character, full of anecdotes and cooking know-how. He told us great chefs must have both technique and passion for food… He felt that some of the great chefs in Melbourne have the technique but not necessary the passion or the pure understanding of food…

Oh yes the food that we made, it was very delicious and unbelievable as I never thought I could cook like that… It’s all in the technique and recipe. The spark… I believe that it does come from the passion for food…

Tony Tan’s Unlimited Cooking School
(03) 9827 7347

*2009 schedule out now!

Ata tombo - “Red Dragonfly”

2009-02-12T16:30:00.003+11:00

One day last year, my family and I had the pleasure of going to aka tombo sushi bar in Prahran.
As usually, it was after a long discussion of:
Who’s hungry now?
When will we be hungry?
What do people want to eat?
Where should we eat?
How are we going to get there?

….we settled for aka tombo…I say settled because we called a number of places prior to aka tombo before we thought of it and reserved our table.

In the end, I am sure we would not have enjoyed ourselves at another restaurant as much as we did at aka tombo.

We arrived at 6pm, while the chef was still preparing his shiu-mais (scallop dumplings with crab roe). They looked delicious so we ordered them. They were absolutely scrumptious, better than any shui-mais I have ever had… so fresh and delicate!

We then received our sushi and sashimi combination for 2 people. Kingfish, salmon, squid, prawns and tuna (and unagi temaki)…. We ate all the daikon radish slivers, cucumber slivers, pickled pink ginger as well :P We also had kingfish sashimi with plum sauce and rocket . The flavours really complimented each other. Everything was just so fresh and complimented each other. We also ordered a plate of tempura moriawase. The tempura batter was fried to perfection, very light and crispy. Have you ever had tempura with sea salt? This is what I prefer, some places will also serve you green tea salt. Ask for it if you want to try it… completely different taste and it preserves the crispy and crunchiness of tempura.

I watched chef Kageyama prepare the sushi, the shiu-mai, tempura and sukiyaki. This guy can do everything really well… rare quality. We also saw him making a take-away teriyaki chicken on rice. It smelt divine! The aromas immediately told my stomach to make room. We promised ourselves to come back to aka tombo if ever the need for take-away arises.

We ended a beautifully crafted meal with brown sugar ice cream…. Delicious and so good for you :P Makes me want to buy an ice cream machine even more!

This place has been reviewed by a lot of websites and blogs… I know I know… but I never got the chance to go there until know. I’m grateful for my sister, always reminding me of these places at the right time :)

The story about aka tombo, luckily, doesn’t end here….

I caught up with a good friend of mine, who was Japanese. She and I have never been to the newly opened aka tombo tapas and sake bar in the city, so we made an effort to go there.

Its concept is completely different to the aka tombo sushi bar as its name suggests. If you like sake and/or sho-chu (Japanese vodka) you will love this place. This place is quaint and great for lone diners as well.

Service is paced so you get to enjoy your chosen liquor. Prices are reasonable… but serving is essentially tapas style ranging from $7 to $10. Lots of variety.

Between the two of us, we had:

Two delicious slices of mentaiko with our Northern Japanese beer (can’t remember the name) and Peach Shu-Hai
Jaki and Rocket salad with yuzu sauce
Something similar to Takoyaki with a clear broth as its dipping sauce
Pork giblet and gobo stew
Kurobuta (black skin pig) katsu with mild BBQ sauce and mustard... By this time, our beer and chu-hai was replaced by sho-chu and cold sake. (Many sake can be drank cold or hot, as the season goes, hot is usually drunk in winter and cold is drunk during summer)
Ebi tempura with green tea salt
Yakisoba

They have really transformed the place from the previous restaurant. The space is now elegant, yet funky and spacious. I love the “art work” on the wall, great DIY idea.

Both restaurants are highly recommended.

Aka tombo Sushi Bar
205 Greville St
Prahran VIC 3181
(03) 9510 0577

Aka tombo Tapas & Sake Bar
17 Liverpool Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9654 6727

All out for Indian

2009-02-10T11:04:00.004+11:00

Source: www.bismi.com.au

My husband has been away on holiday and as he is not a fan of Indian, I decided to go all out for Indian food, while he was away. Luckily, I had a few willing foodie partners-in-crime.

First stop, the Bismi Golden Fork, on Elizabeth Street, near the corner of La Trobe Street. Unfortunately for me, the café was not air-coned so I couldn’t stand to sit there and have their thali meals. Believe me they looked delicious. Instead, I had to make do with the take-away menu and ordered a spicy eggplant curry (my husband doesn’t eat eggplant), very spicy…and two freshly made plain roti… I ordered the plain roti before I saw that there were many other types of roti, like onion roti, garlic roti – doop!

Source: www.yourrestaurants.com.au

Second stop the following day, we went for dinner at the restaurant of the same name in Brunswick. Oh boy, I was so excited when I got there that I was jumping up and down and clapping with joy. The restaurant reminded me of the Malaysian mamaks (Muslim Indian cafes) that I liked so much in Kuala Lumpur. Dark and a little dingy but the food on the counter looked and smelled tasty.

I highly recommend the savour dosai, lamb masala, and the roti tissue… (although it could be thinner).

Source: www.bismi.com.au

They’re having a Valentine’s Day special : 20 dishes per person for $20. That’s pretty good!

If you love your Indian or is homesick for Malaysian mamak, try Bismi.

Bismi
848, Sydney Road,
Brunswick, VIC 3056
(03) 9386 8611

Bismi Golden Fork
380, Elizabeth St, Melbourne 3000
(03) 96501834

Gingerboy

2009-02-06T16:51:00.004+11:00

Source: www.cubeme.com

Do you believe that things are meant to be the way they are….. and sometimes you just have to go with the flow? Strangely enough this happened to me at Gingerboy.

We were asked to wait at the bar for a few moments prior as they were preparing our table.. we were pretty early… 6pm. The cocktails were lovely and potent… great for a hard day.

Then we were ushered to our table in the empty restaurant, right at the windows looking out to the laneway. The sight was really interesting, like a scene from the movie “In the Mood for Love”. I don’t usually like sitting so openly next to the windows; it makes me feel like my meal is on display. But this time, I didn’t complain, I just frowned.

It was funny to see the waiter explaining the menu to us with the hanging red tassels in his hair :) The tassels were from a jumble light fixture dominating the ceiling. The décor is rather interesting…contemporary and very vibrant. After we ordered, we sat contemplating whether we liked the décor or not.. Then as I looked out the window, I caught a familiar couple walking down the lane. It was my ex-colleague from Hong Kong, with his wife! I knocked on the glass to get their attention, and they came into the restaurant to have a chat. That was really a nice surprise! If we were sitting elsewhere, we wouldn’t have been able to see them… Our paths would have crossed but without each other knowing it…. I wonder how many times my husband and my paths have crossed in the past without each other knowing it…. It’s quite exciting to think about the possibility.

While I am writing this, I am looking back at what we ate. The two dishes that stood out in my memory were the prawn entrée and the corn cakes sides. Brilliant. The mains were interesting – sophisticated hawker style dishes… Rich but very tasty. However, sometimes too salty. I do prefer this restaurant to Ezard’s (same owner) asian-fusion. Gingerboy, brings it more back to the roots… retaining the basic Asian ingredients and adding complementary twists to the dishes.
As the night progressed, the room got noiser…more like a market and people getting happier… great atmosphere… I heartily recommend this restaurant if you like South-East Asian food….

Gingerboy Restaurant and Bar
27-29 Crossley Street
Melbourne
(03) 9662 4200

Claypot, St Kilda

2009-02-05T09:11:00.005+11:00

Source: www.yourrestaurants.com.au

I’m not a huge fan of seafood, as some of you may know. But that hasn’t stopped me from going to Claypot in St Kilda again and again, and again. It’s just so yummy!! I love it! I’ve never sat in the courtyard area but I love the front of house area where you get the street light shining in and it feels like a cozy little area.

We usually get a mix of seafood on a huge platter to share… the flavours are just amazing. Be careful, don’t sit next to someone who’s sloppy and order some delicious entrees while you wait for your platter.

Last but not least, if you’re happy to wait then get there at after 6:30pm. If you’re not, best bet is to get there at 6pm. If it’s sunny, get there early and get a seat in the courtyard.

Source: www.yourrestaurants.com.au

Claypot Seafood Restaurant
213 Barkly St
St Kilda 3182 VIC
03 9534 1282

Kappaya Japanese Soul Food

2009-02-04T10:46:00.008+11:00

Source: Hradcanska's Flickr photostream

If not for the food, you need to visit the place for the vibe. This is what Japanese soul food is all about. Amongst the glitz, brands and gadgets, this is also the other side of Japan that I often crave. This rustic yet rich style is becoming more and more prominent now in Japan.. and it’s good to see that the younger generation is craving the “Simple Life”…

Kappaya
233 Johnston Street
Abbotsford
(03) 9419 6350

For more info:
Matt Preston’s Epicure Review August 2007
More photos at Ponzu's Flickr Photostream

Michelin Starred Restaurants in Hong Kong

2009-02-03T16:52:00.007+11:00

"In 2008 The Michelin Guide extended its reach into China with a new edition ranking dining destinations in Hong Kong and Macau for the first time. The guide, featured 251 restaurants and hotels in the two Chinese cities, is Michelin's second guide outside Europe and the United States. The debut Tokyo edition was published in Nov. 2007, with eight restaurants receiving Michelin's highest three-star rating.

Michelin awarded 40 stars to 28 restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau, and two venues got the top ranking.

Lung King Heen in Hong Kong's luxurious Four Seasons Hotel received three stars, while the hotel's French eatery Caprice won two stars." Source: Usatoday.com

Now we did manage to get a table at Lung King Heen last December during our annual end-of-year trip to Hong Kong. It was pleasant enough with sweeping views of the Hong Kong famous harbour, refined setting and elegantly presented cuisine. However.... although good, none of the courses stood out for me.

I really believe that there are restaurants in Hong Kong, that can provide better food, but I guess those places won't have the same waterfront and glamourous setting. It reinforces my thinking that the Michelin guide is not only about food but you have to have everything... You have to have the ambiance and service to go with the food.

Some would say that they don't really understand Chinese food.... Perhaps... Sometimes simple things are the best.... I guess no wonton noodle or sweet tofu pudding place is going to make it into the guide... Here are some downright favourites of mine:

Brunch / lunch at Kowloon City Market food court (top floor)
Islamic food in Kowloon City
Tofu pudding in sweet ginger soup and ginger sugar in Kowloon City
Kiku, B13-16 Basement,The Landmark, Central (Tel 2521 3344)
Yumcha at Jade Garden Chinese Restaurant, Star Building, Tsim Sha Tsui (or Lei Garden is pretty good I've heard)
Roast goose in Sham Tseng, New Territories (I think it's better than Yung Kee, Hong Kong) Some say it's because it is closer to the San Miguel brewery that is why the geese tastes better :P
Live seafood in Sai Kong, you have to try the uni fried rice!

Hong Kong Michelin Guide 2008

Three Stars

Lung King Heen, Four Seasons, Hong Kong
Robuchon a Galera, Hotel Lisboa, Macau

Two Stars

Amber, Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
Bo Innovation, Hong Kong (heard this one is really good - but you got to like fusion)
Caprice, Four Seasons, Hong Kong (very romantic place but bring a fat wallet)
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, The Landmark, Hong Kong
Shang Palace, Kowloon Shangri-La, Hong Kong
Summer Palace, Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong
T’ang Court, The Langham, Hong Kong
Tim’s Kitchen, Hotel Lisboa, Macau

One Star

Fook Lam Moon (Wanchai branch), Hong Kong
Forum, Hong Kong (nice funky place; great place to meet people too)
Hutong, Hong Kong (Interesting place and food with great view)
Imperial Court, MGM Grand Hotel, Macau
Lei Garden (both the IFC and TST branches), Hong Kong (great yumcha as well)
Ming Court, Langham Place Mongkok, Hong Kong
Petrus, Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong (people do rave about this restaurant.. go French, go Petrus)
Pierre (as in Gagnaire), Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
Regal Palace, Regal Hongkong Hotel, Hong Kong
Shanghai Garden, Hong Kong
The Eight, Macau
The Golden Leaf, Conrad Hotel, Hong Kong
The Square, Hong Kong
Tim’s Kitchen, Hong Kong
Tung Yee Heen, Mandarin Oriental, Macau
Ying, Crown Macau
Yung Kee, Hong Kong ("World's best roast goose")

Can Do Approach - Epicure Espresso (Updated)

2009-01-22T17:19:00.007+11:00

I cannot wait to go to Brown & Do in Albert Park! It is the new restaurant from Browns Bakeries' owner - Greg Brown and his former colleague Theo Do. It will be a French-Vietnamese place for about 35 people.

I haven't been able to google where it is exactly.. All I know for now is that it is opening this Friday!

Anyone that can provide me with more info, please let me know!! In any case, planning to go there next week :)

*Read the Epicure Espresso Article
*About Greg Brown

29 January 2009 Update: My husband and I visited Brown & Do yesterday and found it refreshing. We loved our entrees and thought the mains were good. In my opinion though, they are still working out the French-Vietnamese fusion concept as I felt our meals were either more French or more Asian. I guess I expected more raw / cooked vegetables... more fish sauce...more sweetness... which are typical of Southern Vietnamese flavours. Service is friendly and the atmosphere is Parisian cafe.

I also have to say, I like Albert Park, what a beautiful little suburb. Make me think of Hayes Street in San Francisco.

Brown & Do
166 Bridport Street
Albert Park
(03) 9699 8969

In search for great Restaurants in Tokyo

2009-01-09T16:46:00.003+11:00

We're planning a holiday in March to Tokyo for a few nights. I've already sent an reservation email to Seryna Shinjuku for dinner. Hopefully I get a confirmation :)

Other restaurants I'm looking at are:

Kanda, Minato-Ku for a Kaiseki dinner (Alteka Plaza 2F, Harajuku, 1-13-19 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku (00 81 3 5414 6561).
Kobe Fuwatorohonpe for okonomiyaki (Manei Satobuilding 1F, 1-14-3 Ebisunishi, Shibuya-ku (00 81 3 3770 0816)
Tempura Ten-ichi for tempura in Ginza (00 81 3 3571 1949)
Sukiyabashi Jiro for sushi in Ginza 03-35352600

In my research, I came across a really interesting article:

Land of the rising stars - Take a look.It talks about Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo and how some fantastic restaurants are quite exclusive and probably not even known to the Michelin judges.

Without booking, I also hope to rock up for sushi around Tsukiji Fish Market; go to a local izakaya; maybe eat at an onsen tea house. We haven't confirmed where we're staying yet. But it will be either Shinjuku or Roppongi. I am hoping Roppongi actually. It's just so much more homey and so much more trendy.

Apart from Omotesando, I have been told that I should go to Daikanyama as well for shopping. There are many smaller Japanese boutiques there... I'm hoping to see something that I've never seen before :)

Wishing you a fantastic weekend!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-07T09:25:00.003+11:00

Finally some Summer weather!!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy and Productive New Year!

My motto this year is "Simple Life" - less consumerism and more naturalism perhaps.

Happy eating and drinking to all!!

Lau's Family Restaurant

2008-12-01T21:40:00.000+11:00

More and more I'm less inclined to go to posh restaurants, because nowadays there are so many great restaurants that don't have the fuss. Also, I prefer the atmosphere where the crowd is more friendly and relaxed. That's what I like when I'm having a meal, it helps me digest when I'm in a relaxed and happy mood...

Of course happiness at a restaurant comes from good company, good service and good food: Bring a good crowd and go to Lau's.

Lau's is owned by the former owner of Flower Drum. You can see Mr. Lau there most of the time and he personally attends to each table to make sure you are happy. Like the staff, he seems genuinely concern about your happiness. Their attitude really reminded me of the old Flower Drum...

The menu is simple Cantonese food but oozes quality and control. By control, I mean, it's not too salty, not too spicy, and never too oily.

I suspect everything is good, so I won't make any recommendations :) Remember though, you will need to book and there are two dinner seatings: 6pm and 8pm.

Lau's Family Kitchen

4 Acland Street

St Kilda

8598 9880

Mirka at Tolarno Hotel

2008-11-30T11:25:00.008+11:00

Source: Gourmet Traveller

This restaurant is fantastic, the service is attentative, the atmosphere is relaxing, and best of all, the food from beginning to end is superb. Mirka is becoming one of our top favourites in Melbourne.

We always always order the Prosciutto di Parma (This restaurant is becoming one of our top 10 restaurants in Melbourne is fresh Parmigiano Reggiano with fresh pear) and Mussels Marinier (mussels in white wine, leek and saffron veloute) for entrees. For mains, those that I recall were Wagyu Hanger Steak, with truffled potato puree and onion rings; Beef cheek bourguignon with mushrooms and potato gnocchi. Both incredible.

Mirka at Tolarno Hotel

42 Fitzroy Street

St Kilda

03 9525 3088

French Fantasies

2008-11-12T09:33:00.000+11:00

Best baguette; best loaves; best cheese cakes; best pain au chocolat; best decadent almond croissant that I've had so far (in Melbourne)! Simply, I love this place!

French Fantasies (next to France-Soir)
15 Toorak Road
South Yarra
03 9820 2818

Sukiyabashi Jiro - Best Sushi in Japan

2008-11-07T16:06:00.008+11:00

Photographs of the three chefs of Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Tokyo, voted as having the best sushi in Japan, awarded three micheline stars:

"The Tokyo Michelin Guide 2008 awarded Sukiya-bashi three stars, recognizing it as one of the absolute best in the world. Its basement location underneath a business building in Ginza should not suggest anything less of a restaurant that can deliver the ultimate sushi experience. The chefs make their way out to Tsukiji every morning to find the best ingredients, which are then kept at different temperatures in special fridges to ensure that they are at their best. The interior is clean and elegant with lots of wood. Only ten counter seats and three tables are available, which makes for a cozy environment. The atmosphere is surprisingly quiet, which has led more than one person to compare the dinning experience at Sukiya-bashi to participating in a tea ceremony." Source: Sunnypages

Sukiyabashi Jiro

Tsukamoto Sogyo　Bldg.,

B1F, 4-2-15, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
03-3535-3600

Vinh Vinh

2008-11-07T13:52:00.005+11:00

Source: Your Restaurants.com.au

There are so many Vietnamese restaurants to choose from in Victoria Street, some are good for noodles, some are good for broken rice dishes, others are great for spring rolls etc etc …
Not often is a place good for everything and not because of the MSG content…

Unlike many of the restaurants, Vinh Vinh doesn’t require dressing down. It is bright, cheery modern and very clean. A few fish tanks dotted around the restaurant gives it a vitality.

Last week we went, my husband ordered crab claws for entree (highly recommended), a bowl of well-cooked noodle soup while I ordered the charcoal-grilled pork chop with broken rice. My husband commented that the soup stock was really good. But they didn’t give him the prawn pappadum that traditional is served with the noodle that he ordered. He left the remainder of the soup for me (to accompany my meal) and he didn’t allow the waiter to take it away while I was still eating. The pork chop that I had was juicy and grilled just enough for the lovely aroma to hit you as you bite. We were served complimentary prawn crackers as well. Yum!

However, when we looked around, we felt we were missing out on the shared dishes that patrons on other tables were consuming. There was one dish that I definitely want to try next time and I would like to call it the flaming beef in a bowl.

If you are after traditional Vietnamese fare with some class, this one is for you :)

Vinh Vinh
387 Victoria St
Abbotsford 3121 VIC
03 9429 5260

Yoshii @ Good Food Month, Sydney

2008-11-05T22:53:00.001+11:00

Source: Yourrestaurants.com.au

It's the Sydney Herald Sun Good Food Month in Sydney, and there are great lunch deals to be had at some fabulous restaurants.

For lunch yesterday, I took my team to Yoshii for a two courses + wine meal. You don't get a choice but the courses were:

1. Five flavoured tofu gnocchi served with Japanese consomme (Shiso and Japanese plum, black sesame, Nori seaweed, Green tea, Ginger)

2. Slowly braised Wagyu beef cheek in red miso and Brown Brothers Pinot Noir reduction

The $35 lunch menu also includes a bowl of rice, red miso soup, and your choice of a glass of Brown Brothers wine, Coopers beer or a 500ml bottle of S.Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water.

The slow braised Wagyu beef cheek was absolutely delicious. This has definitely enticed me to go there to try their degustation dinner meal in the future :)

Yoshii
115 Harrington Street
The Rocks
02 9247 2566

Back for good!

2008-11-05T12:21:00.000+11:00

Sorry for the absence. I have been struggling with what I wanted to get out of this blog and how I wanted to position this blog, in relation to other blogs; in relation to my life, my time. Under the encouragement of my husband and a close friend, I’ve decided to re-establish this blog for you.

The new focus will be on providing recommendations on the eateries, wines, dishes and recipes that I love, not only from Melbourne but also from other cities that I will be visiting. Life is too short to not eat and drink well.

One of the struggles in my daily life is finding the perfect this, the perfect that…

Hopefully this blog will assist you in making the choice of where and what to eat and drink a little easier.

Best regards,
Kazmic

Seamstress

2008-04-10T17:07:00.005+10:00

I went to a wonderful little restaurant for lunch today, called Seamstress. What great comfort food for lunch! The menu is broken up according to portion size, so you order according to your appetite. Of course, you can order lots of difference items to share, and I think that would be the way to go for me next time.

But today we were presented with a delicate sake cup of clear chicken broth to cleanse our palette then came our shared entree: Dumplings by the tailor. That was followed by two mains: Wok n' Roll (seasoned horfun noodles, green beans, abalone mushrooms and thinly sliced grain fed beef fillet; and Braised oxtail wrapped in sesame leaf, with tempura shitake, tomato tea and jujubes. A little container of rice came with our (Medium) mains. We couldn't stop praising the food, as it was so delicious and light.

The decor was really cute focusing on the theme of Seamstress of course. Although the decor didn't really tell you much about the food style but tells you that it's going to be a little bit unusual. Yes it was a little bit unusual but most of all it was rewarding.

Don't tell many people! Because I want to be able to just drop in for lunch. ssshhhhh

Seamstress

113 Lonsdale Street

Melbourne VIC 3000

9663 6363

Spanish Feast

2008-04-07T21:04:00.005+10:00

One of my good friend loves throwing dinner parties. The effort that she exerted conjures up images of superheroes multi-tasking. There were many dishes that drew "Wow"s and "Ohhh"s. We had a variety of homemade tapas - simple yet delicious.

I made the chicken paella in a Scanpan.

Plenty of white wine and red wine based Sangria to let the teeth have a break.

Dessert were decadent fruit kebabs and sugar dusted churros with Lindt chocolate from the awesome chocolate fountain.

Envious right!

Oyster Little Bourke

2008-03-14T21:17:00.005+11:00

I should be all over the Food and Wine Festival this year, but I'm not. I found out that it was on through a colleague who wanted to organise a Lunch Express $30 deal. We took advantage of the Lunch Express one Friday at Oyster Little Bourke and were not disappointed.

For $30, you get a choice of two courses, a glass of Mandala Semillon or Pinot Noir, tea or coffee. There was a great variety of dishes, and we took awhile to decide on our final section. There were a great variety of dishes from the set menu, and we took awhile to decide on our final order. Between us, we had half a dozen fresh oysters with a shallot and lemon sauce, salmon gravax with grilled vegetables and rocket leaves. For mains, we had the grilled butterfish, minute steak with crumpled pea and a interesting red wine sauce, and grilled pork cutlet.

My oysters were fresh but rather small, the steak was more well-done than the medium and saltier than I would have liked. None the less, I finished everything! My colleagues ate his grilled pork cutlet rather quickly, so I am guessing that it tasted as good as it looked.

One dining partner was Vegetarian and they were able to offer a few nice choices, gnocchi and risotto. The gnocchi dish got the nod of approval.

I have to get more organised next year if it leads to meals as enjoyable as this!

Oyster Little Bourke

35 Little Bourke Street

Melbourne

9650 0988

A week in the life of ....

2008-03-03T09:44:00.007+11:00

These few weeks have been hectic. After our holiday in Hanoi in February, we really needed to catch up with our friends. I realised that I don't really talk about what I eat on a weekly basis... Let's give it a try and see if it is interesting for you or not.

Here is a brief of where we've been in the last week:

Monday: Lunch was a sashi don from Don-Don on Swanston Street. For dinner, I made a beef stew using Harumi Kurihara : Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking cook book. It was a little bit salty, so I think I will cut down on the soya sauce a little.

Tuesday: Lunch was at Groove Train, Melbourne Central. My colleague recommended the smoke salmon salad there, and indeed it was fantastic. Roasted potatoes in a smoke salmon salad - yum!! For last minute dinner out, we were recommended to go to Olive Tree Bistro in South Melbourne for steak. It's near Tempura Hajime. We cheekily went to Hajime to see whether there were any spots before heading to Olive Tree. No luck... The steaks at Olive Tree were not bad... 400g steaks!!! .

Wednesday: Lunch was at Tokio, in the city. Love their ebi-don! For dinner, we ate at home, not very healthy but had roast chicken drumstick, Vietnamese style stir fried mung beans with onion, bean sprout, and mince pork, with fluffy rice. Made a mojito but didn't have soda or lemonade so substituted it with white wine... hehehe

Thursday: Lunch was at A1 Cafe on Russell Street, one of my favourite Chinese cafe. I had the lemongrass chicken and pork on rice. Delicious! For dinner, I had a work function at Centro Ristorante, South Melbourne. It was nice to catch up with my colleagues socially. I had the fish of the day, which was grilled ocean trout. That was followed by banana souffle. I liked to banana souffle better than my main.

Friday: I usually have home-made dumpling in my fridge when we don't want to eat out... So Friday night dinner was simple, boiled pork and shrimp dumpling and edamame with a little twist - sprinkling of sesame seed, dried sea weed and sea salt ... Best edamame so far is from Fuji Mart.

Saturday: Lunch was at Aka Tombo Sushi Bar in Prahran. My sister ordered the Sushi & Sashimi Bento, and I had the Tempura Bento. Aka Tombo can do no wrong :) I think next time I really want to try the special bentos that you have to pre-order... For dinner, my sister was kind enough to cook for me. We bought mussells and other ingrediants from Prahran and she cooked a lovely batch of steamed mussells with a chili coconut tom yum sauce to go with it. She's got magic hands :) I made rosemary and garlic roast potatoes to go with it (following Stephanie Alexander : The Cook's Companion recipe) and some roast corn corbs. Why I made rosemary potatoes for an Asian dish, I don't know. *Sigh*

Sunday: I love the weekend, don't you. Yummy food all day long.... We had yum cha at David's, Prahran. The tea there is really nice. We had the Jasmine and Pu-Er tea. Sometimes the dumpling can be over steamed... but the atmosphere there is just so inspiring. After that my cousin bought a roll for his sister at Amici Bakery Cafe (-love their breakfasts) while I went to look at a few houses around the area before heading off to a baby's 1st birthday. H was very cute and endearing.

That was all for last week.... this week also promises lots of yummy food, good company and good wines.

Have a great week!

Overdue

2008-02-19T09:58:00.004+11:00

I can’t believe it’s nearly 3 months since I blogged. Apologises, I have been travelling quite a bit since December. We went on our annual Hong Kong, Taipei and Shenzhen tour to see my family and play some golf at Mission Hill in Shenzhen. It’s always good but it’s always a struggle to not get sick. And this year was no different. On New Years Eve, the overeating took its toll……. Here are some photos from that trip.

Taipei Ximending where my relatives lives

Local inexpensive Japanese place with relatives

This place started out as a hawker stand which has now taken over 2 restaurant spaces. Something like this:

We went to the most north place in Taiwan

To see the Empress’ Head

It was freezing!

Then sat down for some local fresh seafood

We added a bit of art to the trip, visiting Ju Ming’s Museum

In the end, we actually had a lot of fun there

Then Ivy took us to a gorgeous beach house right on the beach for some supper before we headed back to Taipei

The next day on New Years eve, we went to a local Ximending sushi place with our grandparents

Then all you can eat Yakiniku and Hot Pot for dinner (my downfall)

It was the last time that 101 was going to host the New Years fireworks, so it was quite a significant event. Can you believe we got such a great spot for the Taipei 101 New Year Countdown celebrations! Hubby got to see MayDay live.

We had a fantastic supply of sangria, snacks and soft drink to last us the 3 hours to countdown. We were very popular with the people around us because we brought our own mat which was big enough to let other people sit as well. In the end, I think we had about 13 people on the mat.

“People Mountain People Sea”

One of the best countdowns I’ve seen

Who loves Taiwan – we do!

Mad traffic afterwards

double aka tombo

2007-12-01T09:28:00.001+11:00

Recently, my family and I had the pleasure of going to aka tombo sushi bar in Prahran.
As usually, it was after a long discussion of:
Who’s hungry now?
When will we be hungry?
What do people want to eat?
Where should we eat?
How are we going to get there?
….we settled for aka tombo…I say settled because we called a number of places prior to aka tombo before we thought of it and reserved our table.

In the end, I am sure we would not have enjoyed ourselves at another restaurant as much as we did at aka tombo.

We arrived at 6pm, while the chef was still preparing his shiu-mais (or scallop dumplings with crab roe). They looked delicious so we ordered them. They were absolutely scrumptious, better than any shui-mais I have ever had… so fresh and delicate!

We then received our sushi and sashimi combination for 2 people. Kingfish, salmon, squid, prawns, tuna and unagi temaki (eel handroll)…. We ate all the daikon radish slivers, cucumber slivers, pickled pink ginger as well :P We also had kingfish sashimi with plum sauce and rocket . The flavours really complimented each other. Everything just so fresh and complimented each other. We also ordered a plate of tempura moriawase. The tempura batter was fried to perfection, very light and crispy. Have you ever had tempura with sea salt? This is what I prefer now, some places will also serve you green tea salt. Ask for it if you want to try it… completely different taste and it preserves the crispy and crunchiness of tempura.

I watched chef Kageyama prepare the sushi, the shiu-mai, tempura and sukiyaki. This guy can do everything really well… rare quality. We also saw him making a take-away teriyaki chicken on rice (whatever that's called). It smelt divine! The aromas immediately told my stomach to make room. We endeavoured to come back to aka tombo if ever the need for take-away arises.

We ended a beautifully crafted meal with brown sugar ice cream…. Delicious and so good for you :P

Makes me want to buy the ice cream machine even more!

This place has been reviewed by a lot of websites and blogs… I know I know… but I never got the chance to go there until now. I’m grateful for my sister, always reminding me of these places at the right time.

The story about aka tombo, luckily, doesn’t end here….

Thursday night I caught up with a good friend of mine, who was Japanese. She and I have never been to the newly opened aka tombo tapas and sake bar in the city, so we made an effort to go there.

Its concept is completely different aka tombo sushi bar as its name suggests. If you like sake and/or sho-chu (Japanese vodka) you will love this place. This place is quaint, and great for if you want to dine alone as well.

Service is paced so you get to enjoy your chosen liquour. Prices are reasonable… but serving is essentially tapas style ranging from $7 to $10. Lots of variety.

Between the two of us, we had:

-Two delicious slices of mentaiko with our Northern Japanese beer (can’t remember the name) and Peach Shu-Hai
-Jaki and Rocket salad with yuzu sauce
-Something similar to Takoyaki with a clear broth as its dipping sauce
-Pork giblet and gobo stew
-Kurobuta (black skin pig) katsu with mild BBQ sauce and mustard
By this time our beer and chu-hai was replaced by sho-chu and cold sake. (Many sake can be drank cold or hot, as the season goes, hot is usually drunk in winter and cold is drunk during summer)
-Ebi tempura with green tea salt
-Yakisoba

They have really transformed the place from the previous restaurant. The space is now elegant, yet funky and spacious. I love the “art work” on the wall, great DIY idea.

Both restaurants are highly recommended.

Aka tombo Sushi Bar
205 Greville St
Prahran VIC 3181
03 9510 0577

Aka tombo Tapas & Sake Bar
17 Liverpool Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9654 6727

Full Tummy

2007-10-16T00:16:00.001+10:00

Although I've been to a few fantastic restaurant, I have not been able to review them here as I've just been swamped at work. Well I think I'm just not used to working so hard, having been in semi-retirement for 6 months.... It shows.. and I envy the younger people around me... *sigh*....

Instead of full reviews, I thought I would blog a little about the notably ones that I've been to lately:

Da Noi

Oh my gosh, what great food.... Although we didn't go for the degustation, which is a menu of 4 dishes, we really enjoyed our roast pork loin and perfectly grilled pork chop. I had the pork chop, so I can tell you in detail, how juicy it is and so full of flavour. It's not a good idea to go early as they were still preparing the menu and preparing some of the slow-cook dishes when we arrived at 6pm. We had to, as we didn't make a booking... We had lovely entrees as well, I had a kingfish carppachio and antipasto. Absolutely tasty. It's charming how they write out the menu by hand everyday... It's like eating at someone's house... someone who cooks well.... I think there are a lot of regulars there as many come through the door and are greeted by their first name... Nice personal touch. Definitely worth going again. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to try the degustation menu :P

Da Noi

95 Toorak Road

South Yarra

03 9866 5975

J-Cafe

The days that this place is open is erratic and I am absolutely madden by it. But finally we went there when it was opened and loved it. They have this fantastic original dish called Mentaigo udon (in soup)... Some of you may know that I absolutely adore mentaigo.. and of course I had to order this.... Mentaigo in soup taste very milky... and it's an interesting taste with udon... like having udon in savoury milk tea...weird but it's actually really nice! They also have the "sushi burger" which is only available there. It's basically rice paddies with your choice of filling, i.e. tempura, beef paddy, deep fried fish, chicken fillet, teriyaki chicken, crab croquette, grilled beef (Yakiniku), spicy tuna, and the list goes on.... The dinner set is good value, at around $20. I ate too much, yet again, need to cut down.. or I'm not going to fit into my suits anymore....

J-Cafe

167 Exhibition Street

Melbourne

03 9650 9877

Have been copying successfully Murasaki's miso pork hot pot....it is unbelievable how miso can go so well with pork! Delicious!

Have I blogged this already?? I will leave it here for now.. I will hopefully blog more before we leave for our belated honeymoon....

Barca

2007-09-28T15:27:00.001+10:00

We had the privilege of being invited to the Sophie Lui boutique opening on High Street, Armadale yesterday. So prior to that, we decided to have dinner around Armadale. Using the Your Restaurants website to search for a good restaurant around the area, we came across Barca Food & Wine. I haven't had Spanish food for awhile so we chose this restaurant.

It was quite an unexpected experience actually. All the Spanish restaurants that I have been to so far have a cottage feel to it. This place was slick and loungy, which completely threw me off. The spanish influence is very understated but the atmosphere - refined.

There are grazing platters to nibblies available for entree but we had the oysters and crayfish ravioli to begin with and finished with their signature dishes - the paella, with Moreton Bay bugs, pipis, prawns, calamari, chorizo, peas and fresh herbs; and the crispy-skinned duck breast served on creamy shallot and truffle-infused potato mash with broccoli and blackberry sauce. The duck was absolutely delicious but the paella, although filled with seafood, was more like a saffron risotto rather than a paella.

Being a Spanish restaurant, I was surprised that there were no Churros!?! How can this be?? But there were strange desserts include the 'Barca bomb' - a blend of Jagermeister or Belvedere vodka and Red Bull sorbet.

On a very very full stomach, we throttled along to the Opening for more sugary champagne. Always a great night when there's good food and alcohol.

Barca Food & Wine
1007 High St
Armadale 3143 VIC
03 9822 8515

US Flavoured Cola

2007-09-20T23:37:00.000+10:00

A few nights ago I picked up a package from my mum's house.. All the information that I initially got from mum was that the box stated that the content were cans. I knew straight away what they were... My friend from US sent me cherry coke!!!!

But instead of finding one type of cherry coke, I found Summer Mix Pepsi, Jazz Caramel Cola, Jazz Strawberry and Cream Cola, Cherry Coke, Wild Cherry coke, Cherry 7-Up and Cherry Dr. Pepper. Can you imagine, my excitment!!! I was really overwhelmed and very touched by the present...
My husband and I really love it. We had the Pepsi Wild Cherry and the Strawberry Cream Coke last night with our take away. Between these two I like the Pepsi Wild Cherry better :)
Thank you thank you, Pat!!!!!! I absolutely love the fantastic surprise!

White Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

2007-09-17T23:29:00.001+10:00

There are only a few vegetarian places that my husband would be forced to go to, let alone something that he would actually suggested. Imagine my surprise when he suggested that we go to White Lotus for dinner, when a friend came down from Brisbane!

White Lotus is great, the service is friendly, interesting patrons iand the food fabulous (and not oily). It's probably wrong to have Buddhist vegetarian food with wine... but we did :P Do try the vegetarian duck and the dish that is served in a birds nest made with yam. What a good night.

White Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant

185 Victoria St

West Melbourne

03 9326 6040

Cosy Dinner

2007-09-17T23:03:00.000+10:00

Having a rare home-cook dinner with my husband is always a treasured time for me.

Last month, we bought some inexpensive wagyu steaks from Fuji Mart in Prahran and made a nice little dinner out of it... I made miso soup with lots of egg tofu and seaweed, and one of our favourite desserts - vanilla bean pannacotta (recipe from Maurizio Terzini's "Something Italian" with golden syrup and pistacchio persian floss.

Toko toko toko…. 'room within a house to relax'

2007-09-03T16:26:00.003+10:00

Taken from www.yourrestaurants.com.au

The interior design of Toko might be a rip-off of Longgrain’s but its food is distinctly special.

Long communal benches for “Dap-Toi” table-sharing cut the length of the restaurant. Wax paper table lanterns allow flexibility in lighting… During our meal, I realised that the 8 of us were hogging about 3 or 4 of these lanterns, and I guiltily pushed one of them to where the neighbourly couple ate cheerfully in the dark… Wood panels, dedicated open kitchen for sushi making, yakitori and all other dishes. You can also sit at the open kitchen benches and watch them make your food. However, I would not recommend sitting in front of the yakitori grill, if you want to wear your clothes the next day.

Toko serves Modern Japanese with an emphasis on quality local seafood. The menu is great for sharing and had many varieties. There are around 19 varieties of fresh seafood, and a good mix of sushi and maki and hand rolls to choose from. Main meals were plentiful…. We couldn’t decide so we asked for a Degustation to be provided. We ate and ate until we could eat no more… even the delicious looking tempura whole fish that nearly made it to the table but was sadly waved away….Amongst the ensemble of dishes that we devoured, there were sashimi tartare, sushi was Tokyo style with warm slightly vinegary rice and delicate slices of fish upon them, they provided us with their signature dishes miso-marinated baby chicken and braised wagyu beef with ginger sauce.

Toko Restaurant and Bar
490 Crown Street
Surrey Hills
02 9357 6100
http://www.toko.com.au/

My little Melbourne

2007-08-14T23:26:00.000+10:00

Photos from around where I work and IMAX / Exhibition Building where we watched Harry Potter in 3D. Beautiful huh!

Picnic Brunch

2007-08-08T15:54:00.000+10:00

Picture from YourRestaurants.com.au

After dropping off and picking up our dry cleaning on Sunday mornings, we usually go to Krakatoa for brunch but I'm a bit sick of people staring at me for ordering my lemongrass chicken with rice, or my nasi lemak.... Yes it is oily but when it's on the brunch menu, they make poached eggs and bacon look bland. Anyways, enough is enough... I want to enjoy my brunch where the people are more open minded. So last Sunday, we headed over the road to Picnic for brunch and I was nearly brought to tears by the contrast ...(Hubby wrote: "Bit of an exaggeration don't you think?") .

Everything was healthy no doubt, but there were so many things on the menu, you already start planning your next trip when you're looking through it. After I ordered my eggs florentine, and my husband ordered the breakfast with the lot. I started looking around and thought damn, I should have ordered the lovely glass of fresh organic orange juice that the people sitting next to us were having, instead of my boring skinny hot chocolate. People at picnic were groovy, young and old, optimistically dressed for a wonderful new day. My eggs florentine wasn't too creamy nor too salty... and muffins toasted just enough to be crunchy yet fluffy. My hot chocolate came and my frown turned to a grin when I tasted real chocolate... yum! Would have liked it stronger, next time.

Picnic
Shop 2 / 60 Toorak Rd
South Yarra
03 9866 7988

Vue De Monde

2007-07-30T11:28:00.001+10:00

It is often exciting to go to a restaurant that you have never been before. Especially one that has been much talked about. Despite the mixed reviews that I've heard from friends, we decided to give it a try... and finally got a table!

When we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted by the suit-clad restaurant staff. The entrance reminded me of a boutique hotel reception. Our jackets were taken promptly before we were led to our seats.

We had a seat far enough away from the kitchen but near enough to see the glass panel reflect the chef's preparation for dishes to be served. If you ever want a table at Vue De Monde, make sure you ask for one away from the kitchen, as it got noisier in the kitchen as the night went on. Of course, if you have a large table, I am sure you will be more absorbed by what is happening at your own table.

After our drinks orders were taken, the degustation style of dining was explained to us. We opted for the full degustation for everyone, i.e. 7 main dishes. You can only have one type of degustation for each table, you can't have say, one person who's having 5 courses, and three people having the full degustation. They were going to discuss our desserts after seeing how we went with our mains. So there is some flexibility in the menu... Minimum 5 main courses ($200) and they have a vegetarian menu.... I think the best bet is to order 5 main courses, and then add on more dishes if you are still hungry (at $15 per additional dish).

They will ask you what you don't eat etc... you really need to think about this before you go.... As you might get something that you didn't think of but you realize you don't like... For us it was hare, i.e. rabbit meat. However, it was a blessing in disguise in the end, because I actually liked the rare hare meat.... Eventhough I had images of little furry bunny in my head and it doesn't help that I was wondering which part of the cute little bunny did this piece of meat come from... I couldn't help it and that's why I don't eat the meat of anything cute.

Going to Vue De Monde is like going to watch a show at the theatres. It's dramatic, an adventure and full of surprise. But I'm one of those people who only need to see a show once...

Vue De Monde
Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9691 3888
http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/

Idea Fine Food & Wine

2007-07-25T14:45:00.001+10:00

Photos: Courtesy of YourRestaurants.com

I often wonder why some Chinese restaurants (and Italian ones in Lygon Street) have girls in the front trying to pull customers in from the street, as it doesn't make the restaurant look more enticing, I think it actually has the opposite effort of making the hungry pedestrian think that the restaurants are desperate for customers. You don't see Flower Drum or Grossi Florentino requiring menu girls to pull customers...

I'm trying to think back on my travels whether such menu girls have ever enticed me to enter an unknown restaurant... no not really. The best bet to find a good local restaurant is to ask your hotel concierge or consult the WWW in advance.

The menu girl often is a deterrence for you to actually stop and look at the restaurant as well, as you may not want to be hassled. This is why I had never gone to Idea Fine Food & Wine until now.

Where was the menu girl this frosty evening?.... Maybe they decided that it wasn't working for them? Maybe... In any case, I got to stop and look inside the restaurant as I walked from work to meet friends for drinks and dinner. Shocked as I was, I saw how modern and elegant the interior was. That night, I vowed to convince everyone to go there for dinner that night. I succeeded.

There were no Chinese patrons in sight, not a good start for any Chinese restaurants that claims to have good and authentic Chinese food. Never the less, we bravely ordered from the surprisingly diverse menu of pan-Asian cuisine.

We ordered the Abalone Mushrooms with Chinese Broccoli, Singapore Chilli Prawn, Hua Hung Beef (not sure whether this is the correct spelling but something like this), and Vegetarian Fried Rice, with lovely Jasmine Tea. The beef was our favourite. Desserts were Crème Brulee with Black Sesame Ice Cream, and Fried Green Tea Ice Cream.

From this satisfying experience, my new gastronomical mission is to try all of the restaurants on Little Bourke!

Before I forget, Idea received 1 Hat from The Age's Good Food Guide, 2007.

Idea Fine Food & Wine
140 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
03 9663 8829

Nobu opening at Crown

2007-07-24T16:17:00.000+10:00

The word is that Nobu opened Monday night at Crown Casino, Melbourne....
Check out the rest of the Nobus around the world on - http://www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com/
No word on the Crown Casino website yet... hmm..

I've only been to the Nobu Tribeca, New York and we had a fabulous time but our wallets... not so happy. Let me know if anyone's been already!

Borsh Vodka and Tears

2007-07-17T16:35:00.002+10:00

Photo: Courtesy of my247

Speaking of vodka brings back memories of a dinner party at a friend’s house, where I unwisely bought a bottle of Absolut Mandarin Vodka. We opened the bottle and the aroma of sweet mandarins escaped deceivingly. A few of us, brave after a few drinks, decided to have a shot of this clear seemingly delectable liquid. Before I knew it, it was burning down my throat and then my insides. Oh boy, never again, until now. ..

From work, I befriended two lovely but crazy Russian and Polish ladies… no names will be revealed. Of course vodka originates from these countries mainly so I hear them talk about vodka vodka vodka a lot. Particular, they talk a lot about this bar / restaurant called Borsh Vodka and Tears. You might say that this is my impending downfall but actually the result is that I have two bottles of half drank vodkas in my cupboard :P

What a romantic vodka bar, it is. Serving modern polish cuisine, with yellowish dimly lit décor… I felt somewhat drunk already when I arrived. I think I prefer sitting outside under the sudden warmth of the heaters. This place is crowded but surprisingly you can book a table even for drinks. Best to do it two weeks in advance if you want to have a table on Thursdays to Sundays. I mean that very much as we have missed out on a few occasions and had to settle for drinking vodka at home… hence my bottles.

Photo: Courtesy of Melbourne Pubs

I recommend the vodka tasting menu offering three 15ml shots of vodkas of your choice, served in delicate little vodka glasses. The vodka liqueurs are the easiest to drink. I am told that the clear vodkas must be chilled; the rest can be drunk at either room temperature or slightly chilled. For me, I prefer room temperature… where the taste is less crisp and sharp.. and the flavours tend to linger in your mouth and throat.

There is a special way of drinking vodka as well. You must breathe out first, drink the vodka while breathing in and then breathe out again to avoid swallowing and tasting the alcohol fumes.

Out of the 100 European vodkas, our favourites are the Polish Sour Cherry Vodka and the Romantic Rose flavoured Vodka.

Now that I’ve told you the technique, I hope you will become a Vodka enthusiast as well.

Borsh Vodka & Tears
173 Chapel Street
Prahran
03 9530 2694

Ling Nam Restaurant

2007-06-28T13:50:00.001+10:00

On Tuesday night, we caught up with a few friends who were down for business from Malaysia, and they decided to go to Ling Nam. I wasn't too crash-hot on going but never the less, it was a relatively predictable Chinese restaurant, so I thought.

In Uni days, we went there after a late night and order our supper of hot bowls of beef and preserved egg congee with Chinese fried donuts. That's what I thought they were good at. This time, luckily we went with friends who knew what to order, my Ling Nam horizon has broaden.

We ordered giant pipis in XO sauce, salt and pepper chicken steaks, black pepper sizzle plate steaks, garlic stir-fried vegetables, deep-fried flounder, scallops and chinese broccoli etc... The giant pipis dish came with deep fried Chinese donuts so that you can dip the donuts into the thickened spicy xo sauce. Delicious! Salt and pepper chicken steaks were fantastic as well - crunchy juicy and flavoursome. Definitely something I would order again. I don't remember how much it was per person, but I assume that it was fine. Probably around $30 per person. So much food....

Ling Nam / Ling Nan Restaurant (The sign says Ling Nam but on White Pages it's Ling Nan)
204 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
(03) 9663 2347
(03) 9663 2513

Horoki for Lunch

2007-06-20T00:36:00.001+10:00

I've been away in Hong Kong and Vietnam and just got back last Monday... A short trip the day after I accepted my new job offer...

I'm now working on the corner of Spring and Lonsdale in the city... and I've never worked in this side of the city before and it's fabulous! So close to Chinatown, and so close to Horoki! I ventured down Lt Collins Street from this side of town and already noted a few restaurants and cafes that I would like to try for lunch.

I've never been to Horoki for lunch so I didn't know how the menu worked... But it's like this. There is a daily lunch special menu ($12.90) where you can order 3 items from the menu. It comes with ciabatta bread or rice. I opted for the hamburger steak in juicy tomato and onion sauce, tuna and silken tofu salad, salmon croquette and rice. The food came after 10 minutes, beautifully laid out on hand-made Japanese ceramic. I loved and ate everything. I also ordered hot apple tea (which is from Lepicier) which was absolutely delicious.

Unfortunately, I paid too quickly and the waitress had to chase me down the street because I forgot to pay for my tea! Hahaha. First time ever that has happened. Already looking forward to going there with Hubby next week! YUMMMM!

Bread Making

2007-06-12T20:36:00.000+10:00

At the recent Myer sale, I bought a pop corn maker as well as a bread maker. I've been baking various loaves of bread since then... trying to perfect the recipe. I've also started making rolls as well. Next time I want to try making baguette...

What am I up to these days…

2007-05-29T16:29:00.000+10:00

I’ve had a cold for 2 weeks now.. even after trying every over-the-counter medicine under the sun. Surprisingly the only times when I felt better were when I saw my Oestopath and my Naturopath for my remedial massage. My remedial massage was just last Friday… and after that she gave me a remedy that required me to take the evil tasting liquid 3 times a day until I got better. I saw that she put elderflower liquid into it.. but where is it?? Where is the elderflower aroma or taste???

On the gastronomical front. We haven’t been to any new place.. just our regular haunts like Kenzan and Murasaki. We went to Rockpool again for Michael’s birthday. We didn’t have the wagyu this time and was seated inside next to the open kitchen, which was very entertaining. They cook the steaks very simply by covering it with olive oil and sea salts then straight onto the open wood fire. We had the wagyu leg steak and 33 days aged 200g sirloin. Our entrees were fantastic. I had the Spicy Seafood and Saffron Soup with Aioli, while Michael had the Lobster, Avocado and Zucchini Salad with Hazelnut and Lime Foam. There are still so many dishes we want to try there. It is quickly becoming one of our favourite restaurants.

We also went to Red Emperor for my father-in-law’s birthday on Sunday. Their food and service is always impressive. Just bring a jacket as the air-con can be vicious.

Yumcha on Sunday morning at Tai Pan with Wil and family. H is such a cute baby.

My cousin is on tour in Japan…. Lucky lucky girl…. I’m sure my travel advice emails to her have a hint of envy in them…. I miss the food in Japan!!!

Despite reviews from friends, I’ve decided to grab a booking at Vue De Monde in July. We will see how that goes…

More later..

ANZAC Day Brief

2007-05-23T10:28:00.000+10:00

My beautiful David Austin from my Balcony Garden.

Road to Mont Albert lined with autumn leaves.

Peninsula Hot Springs - 36C, 40C, 42C Public Hot Springs, Sauna and Plunge Bath. Lots of pampering treatments on offer as well.

Stillwater at Crittenden - Brilliant place for a lazy and sunny afternoon. Food was great and service attentive. Large garden attached to the vineyard for the kiddies to run around in.

We went to Hallah Korean Restaurant for dinner ANZ day. It has just opened, very reasonably priced. Not much on the menu, I guess they are still working out the menu. They can't sell beef because their friend has a Korean BBQ next door that does. LOL. They haven't got their own liquor license yet nor BYO license.

Peninsula Hot Springs
140 Springs Lane (formerly Devonport Drive)
Rye
03 5950 8777

Stillwater at Crittenden
25 Harrisons Road
Dromana
(03) 5981 9555

Hallah Korean Restaurant
268 Victoria Street
North Melbourne
(03) 9329 4293

Tom Phat on Sydney Road

2007-05-22T14:24:00.002+10:00

Another great street to explore is Sydney Road, Brunswick. I must admit I get lost every time I try to get here, even with GPS. I don't know why. I think the best thing is to catch a tram here...
I found Tom Phat from the Cheap Eats Guide, and headed out there with Yuki… What a fabulous place. Wooden everything like a Swiss Alp Chalet. The kitchen was packed with chefs dishing out yummy food. The menu was simple with a few choices for lunch. We ordered the pad thai and a green chicken curry. My curry lacked something and it was curdling a bit.. I actually added sugar to mine to make it more tasty. While Yuki’s pad thai was fantastic – tasty and juicy.

We had mango lassi with our meals, which tasted more like banana shake. LOL Still the vibe of the place, the cool crowd and the pad thai, would make me want to come back…

Afterwards, we hit the pavement for some finds. Great shops here.. There's Olive Grove Studio where you can try your hand at creating your own bags or t-shirts. A bit pricing but good for creative ideas for DIY projects. There's Backup, a funky clothing and shoe shop that gets their stuff from Hong Kong and China. We bought a few tops from here and their coats are gorgeous. Don't mind the eager sales ladies though, they are good fun. There is the Tony Bianco Shoe Warehouse as well, fantastic with fashionable shoes from $20, heaps of other independent labels and little cafes.

Tom Phat
184 Sydney Road
Brunswick
(03) 9381 2374

Dancing Bonito Flakes

2007-05-20T17:36:00.000+10:00

We took a photo of the dancing bonito flakes on top of our Agedashi Tofu at Torimatsu, for my ex-colleague, because she missed it so much. Now she has a copy on her mobile!

Hmm yum my favourite - Teriyaki Salmon Don at Torimatsu.

Torimatsu Japanese Restaurant
179 King Street
Melbourne
03 9670 9683

Shepparton SPC Ardmona

2007-05-14T11:50:00.001+10:00

Having resorted to spending some quality time with me, my husband had to endure a two hour drive to Shepparton on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when he could have played golf, because I wanted to go to the SPC Ardmona factory outlet.

12pm, we ran out of petrol but safely arrived at Coolabah Cafe attached to the Coles Express Shell Petrol Station. Great burgers!

The drive was scenic enough with lots of cows and sheep. We passed the time listening and singing along to Michael's old Chinese CDs, and counting road kill...

After passing a few small bridges, one named Ah Wongs Bridge, we arrived into Shepparton and drove to the actual Shepparton Cannery but the factory outlet was nowhere to be found. Luckily, I had their telephone number on my mobile because I had called them to check whether they were open on a Sunday, before we left.

We rang them and were then redirected to the town of Mooroopna (The Fruit Salad City - I'm not kidding), about 3 km from Shepparton.

We arrived finally after a little under two hour from Melbourne.

We probably spent about 1 hour there... yes 2 hour drive and 1 hour in the store - crazy I know. But it was better than we expected. There were all kinds of canned fruits and vegetables, campbell brand soups - we got lobster bisque, onion soup, chicken and sweet corn soup, a carton of spagetti, lasagna pastry sheets, dried spagetti, 10kg bread machine mix, large row of kitchen towellette, truffle chocolates, Guylian chocolates, apple and pear puree, prunes, canned Seafol tuna and so on. We spent about $180, some were for my sister. I can't believe we bought so much! I probably won't need to buy any type of canned products for a decade!

On the way back, instead of taking the Goulburn Valley Highway, we decided to go the other and headed towards Benalla. Not much difference, but a slight change of scenary. I did not spot any koalas despite numerous signs notifying me that I might. They were very percise about it as well "Koalas Next 13km".

It was about 4pm when we left Mooroopna. And we watched a mesmerising sunset to the right of our car. Mind you, it rained occasionally while we were in the car... Unfortunately, Michael took the car out for a wash before our little trip... oh well.

Because of the time, we had to head straight to Burwood for Mother's Day dinner at Gold Leaf (Former Shark Fin). We arrived at Gold Leaf around 6:30pm.

Long day but fun day. Thank you my wonderful Husband.

SPC Ardmona Factory Outlet

91 - 95 McLennan St
Mooroopna
03 5825 2444

Fifteen/Birthday

2007-05-11T16:19:00.001+10:00

The Momo place off Collins Street has been transformed into an eclectic eatery with ikea-like furnishing and strange pot plants, that is Fifteen Melbourne. I am not sure what the bright orange fragile luggage taped fern is about… After being seated for awhile, I realized that I had not come to a fine dining experience and that the atmosphere was indeed fragile and a little bit confusing. Although I do love the plants in the overhead fishbowls.

Is it a fine dining restaurant? I’m not sure, except the prices seem to drum that beat. Is it a bistro? I’m not sure either, there is no elegance. After having to pick up my own bread with my fingers from the bread board held by the waiter, I resolved to be composed like I was eating at a noisy cafe.

It was my sister’s birthday, so I was determined to make the evening enjoyable, dispite seeing a table that arrived later than us get their drinks and menu then meals before us. Well we had our Yarrabank Cuvee to keep us company while we waited for the correct set of menus to arrive.

Service was friendly, but seemingly inexperience and it was a struggle to get attention amongst the noise and the activity.

Basically, you have two choices of menu, one a la carte and what they call “tasting menu” which is a 6-course Degustation. The waiter failed to tell us that you can only have one or the other per table. So it took us awhile to sort ourselves out, as two of us wanted the degustation and two wanted to order a la cart. So we ended up all ordering a la carte:

Carpaccio of beef with summer salsa of capsicum, celery, tomato and micro herbs
Risotto with wild mushrooms and parmesan
Grilled mushroom brushetta with rocket and parmesan salad
Seared scallop slices with pomegranate seeds sauce (as pictured below)

Source: www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

Wicked Sicilian fisherman’s stew: a rich combination of scallops, clams, WA scampi, mussels and fish of the day, grilled sourdough and a dollop of saffron aioli
Pan seared barramundi with chorizos and roasted potatoes

Sautéed baby spinach with pine nuts
Creamy mashed potatoes
Roasted potatoes

Thank goodness the food was good. I devoured all of my mushroom risotto – what a good hearty dish. I wished that I could finish all of the soft barramundi! Top of the list, the Fisherman’s stew – fabulous! Don’t order any sides until you see your mains. Ours came with plenty of greens and we didn’t touch most of the roasted potatoes. Having said that, we loved the creamy mashed potatoes, which was fluffy and went well with everything. We didn’t have enough stomach space for dessert, although we wanted to try their panna cotta.

Their menu changes on a daily basis because they try to get the freshest ingredients available.

Just remember to dress down….

Fifteen Melbourne
Basement, 115-117 Collins Street
Melbourne
1300 799 415 [This is a long message centre, just be patient, you will get there…]

www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

A Blessing in Disguise

2007-05-10T11:14:00.001+10:00

What a wonderful restaurant! Michael had said that the few times that he went in the past the experience was great. But not being a huge fan of Italian fine dining, I was a bit skeptical. We organized Cafe Di Stasio early Tuesday night for a catch up with our dear friend, who was down from Sydney, and before our James Morrison show.

As it turned out, James Morrison’s concert was cancelled. So it was a blessing in disguise because I would rather spend time with my friend than see James Morrison…

The bow-tied white jacket clad waiters were attentative, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The specials were extensive and recited with pride by the waiters. The wine list was expensive :P In the end, we settled for a French Island Vineyards Pinot Gris ($56!!) – light, citrus, and slightly bitter. Should have ordered the Medhurst Rose, which would have been brilliant.

We settled for the following selection

A dozen of natural oysters with wedges of lemon to share
Mixed Salad with chargrilled seafood

Chargrilled Eye fillet with truffle oil and a roasted tomato
Pasta of the Day – Angel Hair with pesto and scallops
Roasted Lamb Loin…
Rocket salad with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Muscat Liqueur Tart
White Chocolate and Tart
Loose Leave Plunger Peppermint Tea

Such a cozy place to catch up with your friends and the service is impeccable. Everything was delicious, that is rare for Michael and I that we enjoy everything. The dishes were served as described in the menu – straight forward, no nonsense and nothing decorative. Even the tarts were served on big white plates with neither droplets of chocolate sauce nor dollops of cream. The eye fillets were sliced and sufficient for me, but for grown men, maybe not. And so it was for the meals… I think this is a restaurant that you will be able to have three-courses - no problems.

Our tarts were fabulous. I have read that the crepes with the fresh strawberries are meant to be fantastic but I wasn’t sure whether it would be too much… oh well next time!

Cafe Di Stasio
31A Fitzroy Street
St Kilda
(03) 9525 3999

Monk and Me

2007-05-09T09:37:00.001+10:00

Better write this while it is still fresh in my memory.

Monday night, my girlfriends and I dropped into Monk & Me for a catch up dinner. The place was a little hard to find. Evans Place is actually on the side of the large car park in front of Rivoli Theatre, or the back of Bourke Road, Camberwell. But technically it is Hawthorn East.

I had a look at my Good Food Guide and Cheap Eats guides and didn’t see the restaurant mentioned, so I went to the place not knowing what cuisine it served and how good it was.

Once at the restaurant, there weren’t many people, so I could easily spot my friends. The decor was simple, with wooden communal benches in the centre of the room, and wooden square tables on the side. There was some attempt at creating an Asian feel with antique Asian decorative carved wood window panels and artwork on the walls. It reminded me of Omah’s at Port Melbourne, but less sophisticated. So I didn’t think much of the place, but after looking at the menu and tasting the offerings… I would definitely go back.

Our dinner began with two entrees, Lohbak – Minced chicken blended with five spices, wrapped in bean curd skin and fried; and Ling – Rockling fillets marinated in curry paste and snap fried.

Then we got a bit greedy and ordered three mains: Chicken Red Curry, Mee Goreng (Indian Style) – Wok-tossed Hokkien noodles with a blend of spices, bean curd, potatoes, tomatoes, chicken, egg and prawns, garnished with fresh lettuce, shallots and a wedge of lemon; Gado Gado – Mixed vegetables, tofu steamed and topped with peanut sauced garnished with egg slices and pappadams; and a side of Roti slices with peanut sauce.

All the food was awesome! I loved the lohbak especially with the light plum sauce provided. The rockling fillet was fried just right, and great with the sweet chilli sauce provided. Mains were spicy, fresh and delicious. The chicken was so infused with the red curry that it was a reddish-brown colour, which I first mistook for slow-cooked beef. Roti slices were a bit oily and the mee goreng a bit salty but very flavoursome.

One thing that slightly diminish the overall enjoyment was that the waitress gave us the bill without us even asking for it, even though she said “Here’s the bill but in your own time”. I don’t know, I just found that somewhat rude, and that would never happen in a fine dining restaurant. I know it’s not a fine dining restaurant but I would not except that from a well-decked out place. Our bill came out to be $25 each including wine – Evans & Tate Estate Shiraz (creamy and delightful).

Monk and Me
9 Evans Place
Hawthorn East
03 9813 1151
http://www.monkandme.com.au/

Three Days in Wellington

2007-05-08T10:23:00.002+10:00

Three days in Wellington already made me fell in love with it. Upon touching down into the Wellington airport, the small plane window showcased a dramatic scene of plunging shores and crashing waves, white foams gathering around the rocks. Amazing.

The drive to the city centre showed me a city that was a mix of Nordic and Urban. Imaginge getting a holiday house here on the hill overlooking the water… Wellington city is so close to the shore! Even walking to work you can see the water.

Upon recommendation by my colleague, I stayed at Holiday Inn Wellington, which reminded me of Central Equity apartments - modern and adequate but not of the best quality. The furniture is modern but Dare Gallery like. My room service was served without a table as my laptop was on the desk, and the kitchette was too tall for eating from. So I ate on the bed with the tray on my knees… hmm... not the most comfortable. But who cares if you’re on a holiday right. Amenities are basic. But the space is very function, with a fully equipped kitchette with microwave, kettle, toaster and lots of storage space. I do like the bathrooms – clean lines and functional. And that is what the hotel is about - functionality.

I got a tour of the gym and spa after I got back from work, and the long thin lap pool looks fantastic. At the end of the room, there was a large spa enough to fit six people. There were a large steam room and a sauna. However, there the gym area was sparse with only a treadmill, exercise bike, exercise ball and a yoga mat…

Typical hotel breakfast was rather expensive – full breakfast at $29. So I went to have breakfast outside on the last day at Leuven Belgian Beer Restaurant on the way to work. $6 for a poached egg and bacon on toasted French bread, with a hash brown and half a tomato. With a foamy hot chocolate, the meal came to $9.00. Pretty good.

On the first night, it was beers on Featherton Road at Arcadia, followed by Zibibbo for dinner. I had the Rotisserie Duck with White Truffle and Honey Glaze, and a few glasses of the divine Ata Ranga Sauvignon Blanc 2004. The Zibibbo Tapas Platter - for Two entree was absolutely fantastic. It’s set out on a lovely wooden tapas board with individual nine ceramic square plates filled with savouries from chorizos and beans in extra olive oil to freshy made foie gras. My colleague, who have moved here from Sydney, told us that there aren’t many restaurants in Wellington and to survive they have to be good. So you can’t really go wrong with any restaurants here in Wellington.

For dessert, two of us ordered Tamarillo Creme Brulee with Berry Sorbet. You think that’s good, our other two colleagues decided to share the Dessert Tapas Platter - Tasting Plate for 2, which had small bowls of all six of the desserts on the menu. Ahhhh, I thought they meant the savoury platter! Why wasn’t I listening? The platter looked great….

After that, we went downstairs for some beers, franchelico and their home-made sangria. Boy did the sangria have a kick to it…. That was my night-cap.

…Walking to our client’s site is like walking on a cliff, the wind was so chilly Thursday morning… From the hotel restaurant window through the chain curtains, while having breakfast, I saw people streaming pass in waterproof and wind proof jackets… no one carried an umbrella… hmm…

Second night I had dinner in, and after receiving good reviews from my colleague about Plate, the restaurant downstairs, I was confident that my dinner would be fantastic. I was not wrong… My wood roasted salmon – succulent, with the right balance of fat and flesh, with a sudden taste of capers and the freshest nicoise salad and salsa verde with brushed potatoes, boiled eggs, extra virgin olive oil. So simple, but so so tasty. It really highlights that if you have great produce, what ever you make will be good... just don’t over complicate things.

I also had mandioca fries, a type of potato, which is chewy, paprika and roasted onion like flavours, no sweetness just texture and flavour. It came with roasted red onion flavoured mayonnaise. Fantastic! Last but not least, a caramel flan with rum and raisin syrup. Can you believe it was cold enough in my room that the syrup was solidifying! I didn’t know how to work the air-con… Facing the harbour, didn’t help. Ah well I worked it out in the end…. And it was time to sleep…

“Can you take me to the International Airport”
“Domestic and International, they are all the same place”
“I see…”

Video from the drive to the Airport

Zibibbo Restaurant and Bar
25 - 29 Taranaki Street
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
(04) 385 6650
http://www.zibibbo.co.nz/

Leuven Belgian Beer Restaurant
135-137 Featherston Street
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
(04) 499 2939

http://www.leuven.co.nz/

MUJI LOVE

2007-04-30T03:34:00.000+10:00

I am envious of people in Asia and Europe for many things accessible only to them, one of those things is.... Muji. Muji Rushi Ryohin, is a lifestyle store selling everyday objects of minimalist beauty. Their ever expanding products ranges from fold-up bicycles, wooden tables, coffe cups, pencils to socks and clothing.

"Muji originates in Japan and translates as “No Brand Quality Goods”. It was established in Japan in 1980 and the company’s basic principle is to develop new, simple products at reasonable prices by making the best use of materials while considering environmental issues. At the end of February 2005 Muji had 285 stores in Japan, 144 of these being licensed stores. Its turnover in 2004 was 117,663 million Yen and it had over 3400 employees. In the early 1990’s Muji opened its first store in London and since then has expanded rapidly in the UK and throughout Western Europe." (Taken from Muji UK)

I think their kitchen range is just timeless. From the ever changing and expanding range, I have the 3-piece microwavable bento lunch box set with cover (pictured below) and two sets of light emerald blue ceramic bowls with tea cup and saucer.

Here are some of my other favourite things from Muji.

Wooden Soup Bowl

Glass Tea Pot & Cup for One

Ceramic Chopstick Holders

The UK range is available for purchase on Muji UK

James Morrison is Coming to Melbourne

2007-04-28T01:13:00.001+10:00

Cavallini

2007-04-27T00:30:00.001+10:00

Cavallini is such a beautiful cafe... even when buying biscuits I wanted to linger and absorb everything... I could live here, seriously!

The photos don't do it justice.

Queens Parade or what is called "Clifton Hill" shopping strip, in Fitzroy North, is a gem. Park your car at Blondies, stroll the stores along the street and then wonder around the corner to the other quirky stores, from Swords Selection, Cavallini, ........ I could happily wonder around here all morning or all afternoon.

During my drive from Queens Parade to Prahran via a GPS assisted short cut, I passed Smith Street and Church Street, both lined with (as many of you would know) very unique and intriguing shops and cafe. Aren't we blessed, Melbourne...

Cavallini Artisan Bakery Patisserie Espresso Bar

354 Queens Parade

Fitzroy North

03 9486 3883

Sorry Lauren

2007-04-26T12:16:00.001+10:00

Sorry Lauren for missing my osteopath appointment. I totally forgot - very sorry!

When you called, I was sitting at Tho Tho enjoying a surprisingly delicious Vietnamese broken rice dish with grilled pork chop and shredded pork skin.....totally oblivious to my scheduled engagements....the lime soda was too sweet though...

I've always seen the crowds at Tho Tho but never went there because I somehow believed that it would be expensive, not authentic and generally not very good. But I'm glad I went... our meal, although it took longer than the usual 5 minutes to get to us, was unbelievably refined and delicious. We ordered Vietnamese even though the extensive menu included Chinese cuisine.

The goss behind Tho Tho is that two divorcees who wanted to start their own restaurant were introduced. I don't know whether any sparks flew but Tho Tho was the result of the union. While eating my meal, I suspected that the lady with the made-up face behind the counter was one of the boss. I am also told that they have 12 chefs, thus the capability to have such an extensive and varied menu.

My broken rice dish was $8.50 and Michael's pho dish was about $8.00. So pretty much standard pricing for Richmond Vietnamese restaurants. I'm glad for Tho Tho, I'm a little tired of the lack of refinement in Vietnamese food in Richmond. They can do so much better... If you've ever eaten Vietnamese food in Vietnam, you will know what I mean. The pho soup is suppose to be clear not cloudy.... too much MSG and not enough filtering of soup stock floaty bits. Of course, if anyone have been to a better Vietnamese place, please let me know. I have also heard Saigon Rose is pretty good....

After our lovely lunch at Tho Tho, we headed off to Dan Murphy's (Prahran) to check out the vodkas and weekly specials. Then we came across a rather interesting Alsace white wine called "Maru" - one that is dedicated for sushi / nigiri eating! (last two photos in the collage)... Nearly bought it just for the novelty but at around $20, I had to think about it. Next time I'm planning sushi for a meal, I'll definitely go out and get it.

Note regarding Photos: The first two photos in the collage are from Cafe Vue, where I had a fabulous hamburger for work lunch.

Tho Tho

66 Victoria Street

Richmond
03 9428 2036

Ratings

Food: Delicate Chinese and Vietnamese Cuisine

Top Dish: Broken Rice wit the Lot

Atmosphere: Modern and Minimal

Service: Have to know what you want to order as they're not really good with recommendations.

Booking: Not essential, but at night time it often seems crowded.

Dontac

2007-04-24T23:09:00.001+10:00

I have often come across the ad for Dontac in freely distributed newsletters for Japanese visitors and residents of Melbourne. You don't really expect a restaurant to be situated where it is on City Road and it is very hard to find during daytime, if you've never been before. But once there, car parking is plentiful.

Dontac is a cafe style eatery cross between a beach side shack and an Izayaka (Japanese pub). It feels like it belongs in permanent summer weather next to the beach. If you have ever watched the Japanese TV drama Beach Boys you will know what I'm talking about. Dontac has an impressive list of Shochu (Japanese vodka) and Sake (Japanese rice wine which can be served hot or cold) that could rival Kura Sake Bar's.

The menu is simple and goes best with alcohol. Don't worry they serve beer as well if you're not into shochu or sake. Table setting is simple and minimal but clean. The focus is on eating the entree-size dishes. We ordered a lot of individual dishes to share. Yuki ordered, we just ate.

Some of the dishes served here I have never heard of or have tasted before.. It could be the chef's own creation, maybe? I read from a website that it is Kyushu-style home cooking...

...Pancetta spring onion salad with ponzu sauce....

........ marinated beef and vegetable balls...........

.....sesame and pickled vegetable fried rice... boy, this was delicious....

.. grilled salmon with spring onion and ponzu sauce...

I think the chef really likes ponzu sauce and spring onion.

How could we forget our glasses of Bishonen and then chilled Nihon Shu sake drank from clear short glasses that went so well with the dishes. :)

I have to say I am not sure about this restaurant... do I like it??

I think for the sesame and picked vegetable fried rice alone I would go back....

Dontac
526 City Road
South Melbourne
03 9696 6794

Ratings
Food: Home-Style Japanese Cuisine
Top Dish: Sesame and Pickled Vegetable Fried Rice
Atmosphere: Simple and Japanese Nostalgia
Service: Informal.
Booking: Not essential. Takeaway is available.

Dedece Plus

2007-04-23T16:16:00.000+10:00

I am in love with this website - Dedece Plus. Check out these items.

Reality Pile Wine Rack

Covo Bei Glass Set

Normann Cognac Glasses

ARTECNICA Ivy panels

Details Bucket Seat

Weekend Weather - Dry

2007-04-23T15:56:00.000+10:00

It's Michael's Dad's 60th this May... We are racking our brains re: what special present we can get for him. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

Went to have yumcha BY MYSELF on Sunday (everyone was busy doing something else) at Oriental Tea House on Lt Collins Street. This probably prompted me to go on a shopping spree on Sunday.. felt so bad when I faced Michael afterwards... He is in shock about how much I spent...

But I finally bought my popcorn machine, a bread maker a jacket, a skirt, a necklace, a pair of matching earrings, glitter cherry blossom body wash and honey cleansing milk (from L'Occitane as there was a $5 special off every $50 you spend until 30 April plus gift if you spend over $65) and a Mouche handbag.... (Myer and David Jones were on sale....)

Oh yes and I bought some biscuits from Cavallini... (^^;)

I had fun...

I found out today that two of my colleagues would have loved to come with me for yumcha. Oh well next time.

Ripe Bananas

2007-04-21T09:28:00.000+10:00

Having bought some bananas a few weeks ago... they have been sitting on my fruit bowl slowly going black... Panic set in, I had to do something with it... So I made banana pancake for breakfast.... then I made a banana cake.....all recipes were based on Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.

Banana Pancake

250g plain flour

60g butter

a pinch of salt

1.5 cups of milk

3 eggs

2 (over) riped banana sliced

Instructions

Put flour into a large bowl and make a well.
Warm butter, salt and milk until the butter melts.
Break the eggs into the well and work in some flour.
Add warm milk mixture and whisk until smooth.
Refrigerate for 1 ~ 2 hours before cooking.
The result should be a mixture like thin cream. If not, add more milk.
For cooking, wipe the pan with some butter/olive oil, what ever you prefer.

Moist Banana Cake

125g softened unsalted butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
2 ~ 3 mashed ripe banana
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
A pinch of all spice
1/2 cup of milk or buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, banana and vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with the milk.
Spoon into cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until cake tests clean.

Hako for Lunch

2007-04-20T16:46:00.001+10:00

Went to Hako for lunch today.. It was a spur of the moment decision as we stood around on the corner of Degraves Street and Flinders Lane. I've never been there for lunch so when I suggested it, I was hesitant. The reason being that the chef for lunch is different to the chef for dinner. But everyone else seemed fine with the idea. Boy lucky we went because it was great....

Two of us had the Hako Set Bento and the other had the Tori Karage Set. All set lunches come with 2 cold dishes. Ours were a small cube of cold tofu in soya sauce and a little bit of ponzu sauce, and 3 edamame beans (sorry I don't know what they are in English!). The set bentoes come with very light miso soup... not much was in the soup except a few flowing spring onion slices and I think slithers of onion.... Sorry I was hungry!

The Hako Set Bento consisted of teriyaki chicken on top of steamed rice, tempura prawns and vegetable in a lacquer bento box. We smelt something wonderful coming into the cafe, in the end we concluded that it was the teriyaki chicken. I would have liked the teriyaki chicken to be marinated a little longer... the chicken taste was a little too strong for me... Other than that, rice was fluffy and hot, and the tempura batter was crunchy and buttery. It all left me feeling like I've had an extravagant meal, wanting a nice long machiato at Degraves Espresso Bar (now that's a funky joint) to top it all off.

Hako

250 Flinders Street (Corner Degraves Street)

Melbourne
03 9650 0207

Ratings

Food: Fabulous Japanese Lunch and Dinner

Top Dish: Hako Set Bento

Atmosphere: Quirky but Funky

Service: Friendly staff who make you feel at home.

Booking: Recommended for dinner but not essential. They don't keep your table so please be there on time. Cash Only.

Happy Belated Easter!!

2007-04-19T09:41:00.000+10:00

I haven't had such fun for a long time!

I rushed into Easter with all these things that I had planned to do, and ended with a whole line-up of other events... Surprisingly, because of these events I have some of the most unforgettable moments that I will store for the rest of my life...

This Easter break started with a warm Thursday evening out with friends, which I have already blogged. We went to Omah's and had great desserts. It is always enjoyable to catch up with friends over good wine and good food.

For Easter Good Friday, we went out for my Sister-In-Law’s birthday with Michael's family at Sung's Kitchen near the Victoria Market. This is the quirkiest Chinese restaurant that I've been to. The decoration is bright without being unbearable. There was a lot of pastel orange being used. It felt like someone's dining room that so happens to look out on to a side street. If you reserve a table, you will be greeted with a cute little handicraft reservation tab with your name on it. Then there are the bonsai plants, lovingly grown by the owner, that welcomes you on each table. I would have loved to show you photos of what we ate but just didn't think of it at the time. Here is a run down on what we ordered:

Double-Boiled Chicken Wonton Soup
Rare Beef Fillet with Vegetables
Cantonese Braised Duck with Bakchoi
Chili Atlantic Crabs
Garlic stir-fried Chinese Broccoli
Red Bean Fried Pancake
Sesame pearls in Almond Broth
Pumpkin Sticky Rice Cake (Complimentary)

Most of the dishes were very tasty, especially the ones highlighted in purple. Sung’s also has very interesting teas available. We ordered a delicious jasmine pearl tea, which was very aromatic and calming. They also have a wide range of Asian rice wine, if you’re walking home. Yumcha is available as well.

On Saturday morning, two girlfriends, their little girls and I had brunch at Sail on the Bay on Elwood Park... Unfortunately, with the kids in tow we were told off that we were making too much noise - Oops! The breakfast is ordinary ( I even found a small piece of egg shell in my poached eggs :( ) but the view is fantastic. I had so much fun playing on the beach with the girls… They are just adorable… I get to practice my limited Japanese with them as well. Great teachers!

Saturday Brunch at Elwood Park

After that, I began my preparation for my Taiwanese dinner at home. Three friends were coming over to taste my home cuisine. Thankfully, I am less nervous than before about cooking for people. I guess my confidence is growing.

My Taiwanese Menu

Taiwanese Grilled Garlic Sausages
Steamed Salmon Fillet with Skin
Garlic and Ginger Baby Spinach
Tempura Shitake Mushrooms with Tetsuya's Truffle Salt
Egg, Spring Onion and Seaweed Soup
Chili Soya Pipies

Gulf Station Pinot Noir 2006 (Provided by Dave)

Spare - Salty Egg Stir-Fried Prawn Butterflies (too much food so I cooked it to save for M and my dinner on Sunday.

The tempura shitake mushrooms with Tetsuya’s truffle salt was the outstanding dish if I say so myself! The trick is to use a mix of plain flour and okonomiyaki flour mix, cooled in the fridge. Also dip the mushrooms in corn starch before dipping into the batter, this will allow the corn starch to absorb any water in the mushrooms so you won’t get splatter.

Late late Sunday brunch was at Mart 130. I love this place, so easy to get to and so many parking spaces. Time just passes so slow in Mart 130. I swear we spent about 3 hours there having breakfast, waiting for our friends to arrive, watching them eat and chit-chat. After we filled our belly, we headed off to Monards to see what watch bargains we could find. Unfortunately, for Michael, the watches that he wanted were snapped up minutes after we arrived. “Well,” I reassured him “if there are so many people who have the watch, then it’s not that special after all, isn't it”.

Sunday Brunch at Mart 130

After having nothing to buy… we headed off to Yarra Valley for Bella Vedre at Badger’s Brook. Although we were too late for lunch, we met the owner of Cafe Di Stasio who suggested that we go to Medhurst, a new winery and cafe created by Mr. Wilson and his family.

Before Medhurst, we stopped off at Coldstream Winery to buy our Limited Reserve Pinot Noir and Reserve Merlot. Both wonderful treats for special occasions.

At Medhurst, we had long chats with Mr. Wilson about each wine on offer and we had a lovely afternoon "tea" there with olives, toasted turkish bread, smooth blue cheese, camerbert, chedder, crackers, capsicum and pine nuts spread, and BLT sandwich. Having enjoyed such wonderful hospitality, we bought seven bottles of wine, every one exquisite and made with passion and attention to detail.

Monday morning was the long-awaited yumcha with my girlfriends at Tai Pan Chinese Restaurant. My goodness.. What have I been missing going to the city places for yumcha. There were so many yumcha dishes that I haven’t had for ages and they are absolutely divine! Bring on the turnip pastry, bring on the steamed turnip cake, and bring on the silken sweet tofu with rock sugar and ginger syrup! In the end, the bill came to just under $20 per person - what a bargain! Thinking of going every week, LOL.

Instead of Sunday night, because they had other commitments, we went to Michael’s parents’ house on Monday. We were told in advance that we were having home-made Vietnamese spring rolls, which we rolled ourselves. The condiment was sweetened fish sauce (ngoc nam) with crushed and roasted peanuts. Delicious! Ending a long weekend with a warm and full stomach.

Monday Yumcha at Tai Pan / Home-Made Vietnamese Rice Rolls Dinner

Sung’s Kitchen

1180 Franklin Street
Melbourne
03 9329 2636

Summary
Food: Interesting Mix-Region Chinese Cuisine
Top Dish: Double-Boiled Chicken Soup
Atmosphere: Cozy and colourful
Service: Friendly and attentative.
Booking: Essential especially for dinner.

Sails On the Bay
15 Elwood Foreshore
Elwood
03 9525 6933

Tai Pan Chinese Restaurant
239 Blackburn Rd
Doncaster East
03 9841 9977

Summary
Food: Quality Cantonese Cuisine
Top Dish: White Turnip Pastry for Yumcha
Atmosphere: Noisy and crowded
Service: Efficient
Booking: Recommended (especially for yumcha)

Mart 130
107a Canterbury Road
Middle Park
03 9690 8831

Summary
Food: Variety of Australian Breakfast
Top Dish: Corn Frittas with Avocado salsa
Atmosphere: Country Cottage / Playschool
Service: Friendly and helpful
Booking: Not essential

Subsequent Wine Tasting Sessions

2007-04-18T11:13:00.000+10:00

Wine Tasting Session 2

Last week, we went throw 10 different wines and without much in our stomachs, the whole class was pretty chirpy by 9pm. We seriously went overtime last week. Anyways, here are the top picks of the night:

Houghton Riesling 2002 – Straw in colour. On the nose, mushroom, honey and gooseberry. On the palate, toasty, woody, herbaecious with a caramel toffee after taste.
Vasse Felix (Partly Oaked) Semillion 2005 – Straw in colour. On the nose, pine nuts, lemon, passionfruit and spices. On the palate, woody, nutty, acidic and lemony. Simple little wine.
Jim Barry Cover Drive Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 – Dark red / purple in colour with full rim and core. On the nose, herbaceous, earthy, spicy and plumy. On the palate, plums, fruity, a bit of tannin, delicate with a long finish.
Glaetzer Bishop Shiraz 2005 – Dark red core and rim. Vanilla, plums, black pepper and herbs on the nose. Tasty chocolate, plums and tannins.
Red Edge Shiraz 2005 – Dark red core, with lighter rim. Berries, zucchini, oregano and nuts on the nose. Granny-smith apples, spicy nutmeg with a long finish.

For dinner, we went to Torimatsu for a quick and simple Japanese.

Wine Tasting Session 3

Most of the wines at yesterday’s session I loved… and lucky for us, we tried various wines from Australia and Europe – 12 in all. Here are the ones I loved:

Bollini Pinot Grigio 2005 – Straw in colour, tropical pineapple and citric on the nose with spells of unriped pears. A little sweet on the palate with a hint of honey, under-riped fruits, mango lemon tannins and a good length.
Scorpo Pinot Gris 2006 – Pale straw with a pink tinge in colour, citric with a hint of honey and tobacco on the nose. On the palate, tastes of seaweed and moss, with apricot acidity. Soft and sweet, rounded with a good length.
Hugel Gewurztraminer 2004 – Deep straw in colour. On the nose, honey, tropical fruits, floral, lycee and rose water. On the palate, notes follow through with tannin and nutty.
Redbank The Widow Jones Viognier 2006 – Deep straw. On the nose, citrus, nutmeg, apricot kernel, moss and capsicum,. On the palate, dried apricots, a hint of spices, dry with a good dose of tannic acids.
Turkey Flat Rose 2006 – Light ruby red in colour. On the nose, apple, vanilla, honey, fruity, nutmeg, of the forest smells. On the palate, a little sweet, earthy, with swirls of cherry, strawberries. Lolly lolly lolly.
Pizzini Sangiovese 2005 – Browny red with deep core. On the nose, spicy, peppery, leather with notes of plums and clay. On the palate, spicy, acidic, dry. Need food with it.
Telmo Rodriguez Tempranillo Rioja 2005 – Ruby red with deep core. On the nose, petrol, fungus and rare salmon skin. On the palate, dried orange skin, woody, with a candy floss after taste.
Fire Block Old Vine Grenache 2002 – Red with even core and rim. On the nose, spicy and peppery, with a hint of cooked tomatoes. On the palate, a little sweet, spicy, swirls of dried prunes and burnt taste.
Stanton & Killeen Rutherglen Durif 2002 – Browny-red with deeper core. On the nose, chocolate, mushroom, hazelnut, meeting with a hint of spice. On the palate, a little sweet with cherry taste, dark chocolate, sultanas and a little spicy.

Interesting information:
- Out of the white wines, Marsanne, Semillion and Riesling can be cellared while the rest should be drunk young.
- Sometimes when the wine is sweet on the palate, it means that the grapes have been left longer on the vine.
- Durif is often known as Petit Shiraz because of it’s spicy notes.

Afterwards, we went to Grill’d in Windsor and ordered my usual Simply Grill’d with Cheese on a Multi-Grain Bun and Herb Chips.

* The world is in mourning for Virginia Tech – How could they have let this happen….”

Omah's

2007-04-10T00:12:00.001+10:00

Omah's was a great little Malaysian restaurant that we went to with cost- conscious friends on Thursday night. This year, Omah's has been awarded 3 stars for The Age Cheap Eats 2007 guide. A few friends have said that they were great but I found the food at Omah's nothing out of the ordinary. Not to say that it isn't good, some dishes such as the beef rendang and
large wok-tossed Tamarind Prawns (with chilli, onion, & crisp apple) were really delicious with just the right blend of spices. But the spring rolls tasting plates were unfortunately very ordinary. Perhaps we didn't order the right things.. as apparently their soft shell crab and fried calamari are great but we didn't order them.

On the upside, their dessert is absolutely delicious! With 8 people, we were able to taste various desserts. - Tabioca (Cassava) pudding with coconut milk and eggs, pandan sago with coconut milk and palm sugar, and Banana fritter served with a drizzling of palm sugar & vanilla ice cream. The Pandan Sago was out of this world... I really want to replicate this at home! Have to buy palm sugar!

If you are in Port Melbourne, if not for dinner do drop by for dessert... especially for the Pandan Sago.

Omah's

136-138 Rouse Street (off Bay Street)

Port Melbourne

03 9676 9918

Fully Licensed but can BYO Wines

Takeway Menu Available

Ratings
Cost: Around $30 each including drinks

Food: Simple Malaysian Cuisine

Top Dish: Pandan Sago with Coconut Milk and Palm Sugar

Atmosphere: Upscale Hawker Style

Service: Reasonable service and friendly staff

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Blackmore Wagyu at Rockpool

2007-04-08T01:37:00.001+10:00

Almost 10 years ago, when I worked with my father, we would travel extensively throughout Asia. Fortunately for us, my father had many friends who love good food and would travel any distance to eat it. Usama-San in Nagoya, Japan was one of them.

One evening, while we were in Osaka, he had dinner plans for us two hours away in a nearby town called Ueno (There are many towns called Ueno in Japan, this one was between Osaka and Kyoto). We drove from light to night. When we arrived we were standing in front of a small hut. We walked into the small hut, there was a wooden counter. A middle-age lady greeted us and led us to our private dining area. It was simple and bare, save for the bench chairs and a large charcoal grill in the middle. There they cooked their award-winning wagyu beef individually for us. Sides were grilled vegetables.

That was the best steak I have ever had and I still feel that today. In fact, it was so good that when asked whether we would like another piece of steak each, all of us violently nodded our heads. Even at 10,000 yen a piece we did not hesitate. This was once in a life time experience. Even now my father and I still dream of going there one day before we die...

My love of wagyu or even great steaks started then... and every wagyu is compared to that unforgettable steak. How fortunate Melbourne is to have Rockpool's Blackmore wagyu, which I believe is a closest contender to that steak so far.

I've heard rumours of its greatness... and eagerly waited to try it myself. As I write this I am still digesting it... thinking about how tender and buttery it was.

It was a special occasion, my Aunty Grace's birthday. I've never taken her out for her birthday. I couldn't afford it before. She has know me since I was 10 years old. Now that I can afford, she deserves the best.

Before our wagyu (yes all three of us ordered wagyu) we shared the Grilled King Prawns, Split and Marinated, which was cooked just right with a lot of juices. After 15 minutes, the 1cm by 20cm 200g medium wagyu rib-eye was served. They were served with a wedge of lemon only.

In individual containers, there were horseradish cream and béarnaise sauce. Condiments service included mustards, barbecue sauce and harissa wrea. But before you let any sauce touch the beef, have it with just the lemon juice first.... you will realise that you don't need sauce at all.

To go with the juicy steaks, we order the deliciously fresh Radicchio, Cos and Endive Salad with Palm Sugar Vinaigrette and moist Wood Fire Grilled Mushrooms as well. Both made for refreshing sides for the buttery steaks.

I struggled to finish my wagyu rib-eye, not because I didn't want to finish it, but it was quite substantial. A wholesome glass of Gilles Robin Crozes Hermitage Shiraz 2004 (from the Rhone Valley) would help to digest the fat.

It was a full house at around 8pm when we were having our desserts. We ordered a Passionfruit Pavlova and Apple Custard Tartlette with Ice-Cream - simple and light, this does the trick of balancing out the oiliness (is that the type of adjective you want to describe an enjoyable meal?) of our meal.

We were beaming by the end of the night, completely satisfied with our meal. The waitress were kind enough to give us menus so that I could get a copy of a few of the cattle paintings that decorated the restaurant. We were very grateful and it gave my Aunty a souvenior for her birthday. (I dared not ask her age :P )

We left Rockpool, arm in arm, eagerly planning when we would return to have the wagyu again...

Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne

Crown Complex

Southbank 3006

03 8648 1900

Ratings

Food: Fantastic sustainable seafood and meat cuisine

Top Dish: Wagyu Rib-Eye 200g

Atmosphere: Comfy and elegant

Service: Attentative, friendly and knowledgable staff

Booking: Recommended

Tuesday Nights Wine & Dine

2007-04-05T12:39:00.001+10:00

This Tuesday was the first class of our Introduction to Wine course at The Wine Society. This course goes for four weeks either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays each month. The course is quite popular, as we found out last night!

There were 18 people in the class with varying levels of wine knowledge and we had to introduce ourselves at the beginning of the class and express what our goals were from this course. My lovely husband told everyone that he was doing the class in order to keep domestic bliss and harmony, in other words, I made him take the course with me. The whole class got a good laugh from it while I turned beetroot. So I introduced myself after him as "Hi, I'm the Wife".

For me, I'm doing the class because I am fascinated with how people describe and judge wines. Sometimes, I am confused by what the waiters say when they are describing a recommended wine to me. I just nod and say "Sounds good".

The first class was an intense two hours testing 7 wines - 3 whites and 4 reds with labels covered. The instructor encouraged us to keep an open mind about what types of wine we like. For example, I've always thought that I didn't like Shiraz, but I was pleasantly surprised when I actually enjoyed the two Shiraz we tasted. Lucky for me, M and I actually liked the cheaper one.

Here are my "L-Plate" tasting notes:

1. The Wine Society Tasmanian Riesling 2006 - Pale straw colour suggesting youth. Dried paw paw and mango on the nose. On the palate dry, tangy, with notes of graphfruit and unripened kumquat, with a little apple after taste. Good length.

2. Giesen Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2006 - Straw colour, fresh cut grass and capsicum on the nose with strong citrus fruit aromas, intense, tangy lemon on the palate and pretty good length. (I liked this one)

3. Tarra Warra Estate Chardonnay 2004 - Straw colour, dried blackcurrant, fresh citrus fruits, vanilla and hazelnut aromas with smokey, caramelised durian flavours with a hint of bitterness.

4. Smith and Hooper Wrattonbully Merlot 2004 - Ruby red core and rim. Earthy charcoal aromas with spices and oak. On the palate, tastes of nutmeg, dried sultanas and oak. (I liked this one)

5. Rymill Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 - Dark red concentrated core with bright red rim. Strawberry jam, vitamin pills, cedar and pencil shavings aromas with spicy and dried blackcurrant notes.

6. Ingoldby Shiraz 2004 - Purple red core and lighter rims. Fruity plum, berries and woody overtones with a hint of pepper. (I liked this one)

7. Wolf Blass Grey Label McLaren Vale Shiraz 2004 - Rich purple red colour. Aromas of ripe blackcurrant, mocha, dark chocolate, with a hint of oak and pepper. On the palate, peppery and spicy. Good length.

The course has so far taught me that you can describe the wine well without liking it but at the same time the more you can describe the wine that you drink the more able you are to distinguish what is it about a particular wine that you like. I'm also starting to know what to taste for in wines which allows me to appreciate the variety more, and have been brave enough to try even the spicy shiraz with my dining experiences.

After drinking the rest of M's Ingoldby Shiraz, we staggered to the nearby Hanabishi to have a late dinner. I haven't been to Hanabishi for awhile and the meal jolted happy memories. As always each dish was excellent, except for the Teriyaki wagyu which was overcooked and tough. Their entree is always a juicy meat ball in its little bowl of sauce. Then we had the Sashimi Main (which tends to be smaller in quantity than other Japanese restaurants), Natural Oysters Four Flavours, Scrampi Special Tempura, Deep-Fried Soft Shell Crab with Asparagus Tempura, Bamboo Leave Salt-Baked Barrumandi, Teriyaki Wagyu and Wafu Salad with Salmon Skin. Every dish was impeccably decorated with seasonal foliage such as hazelnut branches and bamboo canes. This attention to detail really makes the experience all the more special.

I'm looking forward to the remainder Tuesdays, hmmm where should we eat!

Hanabishi Japanese Restaurant

187 King Street

Melbourne
03 9670 1167

Ratings

Food: Impeccable Traditional Japanese Fine Dining

Top Dish: Best Soft-Shell Crab (so far :) )

Atmosphere: Elegant and Modern

Service: Seemless service

Booking: Recommended

Touching

2007-04-04T23:23:00.000+10:00

I've never cried so much at some one's wedding! May's wedding was just wonderful especially her speech and her mother's speech. It's really touching to see how much they love each other. It's also amazing to see when someone is so brave as to bare their soul to 90+ people with such warmth and honestly. No matter what happens, we will be there for you, May!

The Wedding Luncheon was held at Butleigh Wootton, an elegant mansion reception in Kew. Although simple, the lunch was actually quite interesting. I'm not a huge fan of Hardy's wines but it was pleasant with the food.

Menu Selection

Duck breast

marinated in mirin soy, ginger, and garlic with spinach, bean shoots, wild mushrooms and a Japanese style dressing

Fillet of Atlantic Salmon

with a minted pea mash, roasted fennel, crispy pancetta and truffle oil dressing

Eye fillet of beef

served on a thyme potato roesti with caramelised shallots, crispy beetroot, spinach and a classic red wine jus

Wedding Cake

served with cream,berries and coulis

Freshly percolated coffee, tea, port and chocolates

I thought the duck breast was a bit bland but Hubby loved it. We both had the Atlantic Salmon as we were intrigued by the truffle oil :P and not particularly by the beetroot. The wedding cake was a moist cherry chocolate cake which I devoured along with the berries and cream. Unfortunately, I didn't see the port before the MC announced that we had to get out before the next event at BW starts that evening.

Time really passes quickly when you're having fun. I guess for any weddings, you would want your guest to want to linger and stay until the end. This wedding was like that, it was 4:30pm before we knew it and we had to leave. Just a nice Saturday afternoon for a honest and hearth-felt wedding...

Funky Grill'd Burgers

2007-04-04T16:55:00.001+10:00

My sister recommended this burger joint near our house. I don't usually crave for burgers but I do crave for beef and I do crave simple & quick meals, especially after a long and drawn out rainy day. Last Wednesday was such a day....

So we headed off to the nearest Grill'd, which was in Windsor and luckily found a car park near it. You wouldn't think that it was a good place for an eatery but while we were there, there was a healthy flow of customers all ordering burgers and hot chips.

I have to say their herb hot chips are fantastic.... burgers, although took longer than expected, was a treat - juicy meat patty with what seems like a good dose of green vegetable mashed into the patty. You get to choose what bread you want your burger in - wholemeal, white bread, sourdough, panini... There are not only beef burgers but also exotic lamb and chicken varieties. Only one type of fries though. Everything is made when you order it, even the chips, so everything is hot and fresh.

The space is funky and urban. There was a mix of clientele as well, obviously people who live nearby though. On each table, there is a doodling book and colour pencils. If they like your doodle, it may appear on their website. It's a rather casual place with a very open kitchen. The branding of this franchise is extensive, the staff have different Grill'd t-shirt with different slogans and graphics, similar to a red and beige graphic on a feature wall.

I loved my Simply Grill'd Burger (with cheese) and Hot Chips, Hubby was not so convinced. Apparently he had the best burger of all times at this Fish and Chips place in Sydney. In any case, if you crave for a healthy and yummy burger - go to your nearest Grill'd.

Grill'd

157 Chapel Street

Corner of St John Street

Windsor

03 9510 2377

Ratings

Food: Funky and fresh burgers and fries

Top Dish: Herb fries are not to be missed

Atmosphere: Casual, Funky & Urban

Service: Could be faster, we waited about 10-15 minutes for our burgers.

Booking: Just rock up

Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant

2007-04-02T14:35:00.003+10:00

My mum's youngest sister came to visit last month to attend my cousin's graduation ceremony from Taiwan. We usually spend a lot of time with her when we visit Taiwan, and it was really a pleasure to see her in Melbourne. My other cousin, Barry also came to town from Adelaide. He decided to take us all out one night so we picked the restaurant for him :P

Don't be fooled by its exterior and location, Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant is a fantastic restaurant. Hidden away in Waratah Place along with the "lovely" KumDeng eatery, you have to be in the know to find this place.

The decor is a bit strange, with yellow walls and dark-wood cabinets.. still it is the food that we are here for. Their cuisine centres around seafood and the daily special is written on the blackboard above the fish tank. They also specialise in Northern Chinese Cuisine, dishes like Ants on Buddha and Prawns with 3-Colour Eggs.

They pride themselves in serving quality tea as well and I love their glass tea pots...

Here are some photos of the dishes taken with my mobile phone camera... braised lobster with ginger and noodles.

Red-cooked mushrooms, fried tofu and abalone.

(er... this one looks like Chinese Broccoli with beef slices (^^;)....

For dessert, we got to try buttery biscuits from Cavallini Artisan Bakery ..... I was skeptical at first because they didn't look like anything out of the ordinary and I was not really craving for them after such a big dinner. But the biscuits tasted so good, especially the one that looks like cow's manure, that ended up having two. The chocolate biscuit's dough melted in my mouth first followed by the pin-size chocolate solids. I wanted to eat the rest, but there were other people in the room... Oh well, will just have to go and buy some myself....

Crystal Jade Chinese Restaurant
11 Waratah Place

Melbourne
03 9639 2633

Cavallini Artisan Bakery Patisserie & Espresso Bar
354 Queens Parade

North Fitzroy/Clifton Hill

03 9486 3883

Ratings

Food: Simple Northern Chinese Cuisine

Top Dish: 3 Colour Egg Prawn with 3-Colour Eggs

Atmosphere: Eccentric

Service: Speedy service.

Booking: Recommended especially for dinner

Cheap Drinking Spots around Melbourne 2007

2007-04-02T12:27:00.000+10:00

I just received this via email from Audrey. I am sure this will be an essential guide for many of us :)

Mondays

Automatic
$3 pints (inc Stella)
Pugg Mahones
106–112, Hardware Street, City
$3 pints & basic spirits 9-11pm, $3 cowboys all night
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 12-2pm & 4-6pm
Pure
125 Smith Street, Collingwood
$1 pots - Pick of the night
The Public Bar
238 Victoria St, North Melbourne (near Vic Markets)
$1 pots all night (+entry)
The Laundry
50 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$1 pots 3-7pm.
Spinach
Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts, Fitzroy
$5 jugs, 5-7pm
Chameleon/Provincial Hotel
Cnr Johnston and Brunswick St, Fitzroy
$5 dollar jugs all night
The Evelyn
351 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
$8 jugs all night
The Old Bar
74 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 4-6pm
J36
36 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$3.50 Local stubbies, 5-7.30pm
Big Mouth
168 Acland St, St Kilda
$1 pots 5-7, 10-11
Prince of Wales
29 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
$1.20 pots
Elwood Lounge
49-51 Glenhuntly Rd, Elwood
$2 off all alcoholic drinks 9pm-midnight
Mentone Hotel
95 Beach Rd, Mentone
$2 pots, 5-6pm
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Geebung Polo Club
339 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
$4 pints 6-7pm

Tuesday

All Nations Backpacker Pub
Cnr of Flinders and Spencer Sts, City
$3.50 pints all night
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 12-2pm & 4-6pm
Young and Jacksons
Cnr Swanston and Flinders St, City
$4 pints in long bar, 8-11pm
Hotel Bakpak
167 Franklin St, City
$8 jugs
Spinach
Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts, Fitzroy
$5 jugs, 5-7pm
The Tote
Cnr Johnston and Wellington Sts, Collingwood
$1.40 pots all night - Pick of the night
The Evelyn
351 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
$8 jugs all night, 8pm-close
Parkview Hotel
131 Scotchmer St, Nth Fitzroy
$4 pints & $9 Jugs all night
Clifton Hill Hotel
89 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill.
$4 pints
The Old Bar
74 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 4-6pm
J36
36 Johnston St Fitzroy
$3.50 Local stubbies, 5-7.30pm
Big Mouth
168 Acland St, St Kilda
$1 pots 5-7, 10-11
Golden Gate Hotel
238 Claredon St, Sth Melbourne
$6 jugs (Tooheys)
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Mentone Hotel
95 Beach Rd, Mentone.
$2 pots, 5-6pm

Wednesday

F4
Level 2/322 Little Collins St, City
2 for 1 drinks, 9-10pm, 11-12pm, 1-2am. ($6 entry, students free)
Club UK
169 Exhibition St, City
$3 pints dogs bollocks beer (free entry before 9pm)
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 12-2pm & 4-6pm
Prince Alfred Hotel
191 Grattan St, Carlton
$1 pots 9-10pm
Spinach
Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts, Fitzroy
$5 jugs, 5-7pm
Commercial Club Hotel
Cnr Nicholson and Westgarth Sts, Fitzroy
Paper Scissors Rock all night (what does this mean??)
Laundry
50 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots 3-9pm
The Old Bar
74 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 4-6pm
J36
36 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$3.50 Local stubbies, 5-7.30pm
Big Mouth
168 Acland St, St Kilda
$1 pots 5-7, 10-11 - Pick of the night
Mentone Hotel
95 Beach Rd, Mentone.
$2 pots, 5-6pm
Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Racecourse Hotel
Next to Monash Uni, Caulfield.
$3 Heinekens all day
Cato
37 Cato St, Prahran
$2 pots, $3 basics, 8pm-midnight

Thursday

Billboards
170 Russell St, City
$1 pots, $2.50 basic spirits - Pick of the night
James Squire Brewery
115 Russell St, City
Toss the boss all night
Club UK
169 Exhibition St, City
$3 pints, all night
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 12-2pm & 4-6pm
Spinach
Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts, Fitzroy
$5 jugs, 5-7pm
Laundry
50 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$1.50 pots, 3-9pm
Parkview Hotel
131 Scotchmer St, Nth Fitzroy
$4 pints & $9 Jugs all night
Pugg Mahones
171 Elgin St, Carlton
$4 pints after 8pm
The Old Bar
74 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 4-6pm
The Purple Turtle
166 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots 8pm -2am
J36
36 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$3.50 Local stubbies, 5-7.30pm
Big Mouth
168 Acland St, St Kilda
$1 pots 5-7, 10-11
The Saint
54 Fitzroy St, St Kilda
Two for one drinks all night
Vibe
140 Acland St, St Kilda
$5 long necks
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Mentone Hotel
95 Beach Rd, Mentone
$2 pots, 5-6pm
Prahran Hotel
96 Greville St, Prahran
$1 pots 8-9pm, $1.50 pots 9-10 pm
Cato
37 Cato St, Prahran
$2 pots, $3 basic, 8pm-midnight
161
161 High St, Prahran
$2 pots, 9-11pm (+entry for bands)

Friday

The Loft
117 Lonsdale St, City
2 free drinks on arrival
Dallas
195 King St, City
$1.50 pots, $2.50 basics all night
Khokolate
43 Hardware Lane, City
1/2 price drinks + finger food, 5-8pm
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 12-2pm & 4-6pm
Fiddler
577 Little Collins, City
Two for one, 5-7pm
F4
Level 2/322 Little Collins St , City
Assorted 2 for 1 drink specials/giveaways, free snacks, 5-10pm
Concrete
Cnr Lonsdale and Russell Sts, City
2 for 1 Heineken bottles, 5-7pm
Roo Bar
167 Franklin St, City
$2 shots
Odeon
Crown Casino, City.
4 cocktails for $10, 5-8pm
Exchange Hotel
Cnr King & Little Collins Sts, City
$8 jugs/$4 pints/$2 pots, 5-7pm
Velour Bar
121 Flinders Lane, City
$2 pots, $3 wine + champers, $3.50 spirits + free finger food, 5.30-7.30
Bliss Lounge
11 Queen St, City.
$2 pots 5-7pm
Republic Cafe
299 Queen St, City
$3 beer, wine & spirits
Treasury
394 Collins St, City
$3 tap beer, 5.30-9.30pm
Spinach
Cnr Brunswick and Johnston Sts, Fitzroy
$5 jugs, 5-7pm
Trades Hall Bar
Trades Hall Bar, upstairs Cnr Lygon and Victoria Sts, Carlton
cheap drinks, 5-7pm
The Builders Arms
211 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 6-8pm
The Old Bar
74 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$2 pots, 4-6pm
Prince Alfred Hotel
191 Grattan St, Carlton
$2 pots, 5-8pm
Commercial Club Hotel
Cnr Nicholson and Westgarth Sts, Fitzroy
$2 pots, free pizza & other drink specials, 5.30-7.30pm
J36
36 Johnston St, Fitzroy
$3.50 Local stubbies, 5-7.30pm
Big Mouth
168 Acland St, St Kilda
$1 pots 5-7, 10-11
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Eden on the Park
6 Queens Rd, Albert Park
$3 wine, $3.50 botted local beer, $4.00 spirits, 5-7pm
Earl of Lincoln
59 Church St, Richmond
$20 all you can drink, 7-10pm - Pick of the night
Bridie O'Reilly's
462 Chapel St, South Yarra
$4 pints, 6-8pm
Mentone Hotel
95 Beach Rd, Mentone
$2 pots, 5-7pm
Hawthorn Hotel
481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn
$2 pots, $3.50 basic spirits, 5.30-6.30pm
Lotus
172 Toorak Rd, Toorak
$3 basic spirits + beer, 5-9pm
Burvale Hotel
Burwood Hwy, Nunawading
$3 Crownies
Geebung Polo Club
339 Racecourse Rd, Flemington
$4 pints, 6-7pm

Saturday

Young and Jacksons
Cnr Flinders and Swanston Sts, City
'Beer Ambassador': free beer tasting 3pm
Roo Bar
167 Franklin Street, City
$7 Jugs
Carlton Hotel
197 Bourke St, City
$1.90 pots, 2-4pm
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
Bridie O'Reilly's
462 Chapel St, South Yarra
$4 pints, 8-10pm. - Pick of the night

Sunday

Young and Jacksons
Cnr Flinders and Swanston Sts, City
'Beer Ambassador': free beer tasting 3pm
Roo Bar
167 Franklin Street, City.
$3 pints
The Greyhound
Cnr Carlisle St and Brighton Rd, St Kilda
$2 pots, 5.30-7.30pm
The Cricketers Arms
327 Punt Rd, Richmond
$2 pots - Pick of the night

Always

Bar at Ong Asian Food Court
Basement, 265 Little Bourke St, City
$3.30 bottled beer
Saluti
525 Collins St, City.
$7 long necks
Cheers
25 Little Bourke St, City
$3.80 Crown Lager bottles
Normandy Hotel
139 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill
$2.50 schooners, $3 bottled beer
Queensberry Hotel
593, Swanston St, Carlton
$4 pints (Tooheys)
Red Eye Bar
17 Carlisle St, St Kilda
$2 pots (xxxx) all day. 2 for 1 Tooheys pots 5-6pm
Royal Oak
527 Bridge Rd, Richmond
$3 schooners/spirits - Pick of the night
Hawthorn Hotel
481 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn.
$2 pots, $3.50 basic spirits, 8-9pm.

300 with Popcorn at IMAX

2007-04-01T00:15:00.000+10:00

Any excuse to tie my review of the movie, 300, with anything culinary so that I can put it on this blog! :) But I have to say, the popcorn at IMAX was the best I've had in awhile - just popped buttery goodness with just the right amount of salt. For those who know me, they know that I'm very picky with my popcorn as it is one of my favourite "foods". Remember those Nuts about Crunchynut Cornflake ads? My obsession with popcorn nearly runs as deep as those "Nuts". In fact, I liked it so much that, for the first time, I actually took it with me out of the cinema. It was fate as I later found out.

After we left IMAX last Thursday, Kevin and his fiancee were in Richmond and they called to meet up for dinner. Somewhere easy and quick. Kevin said that he would have been happy with just popcorn... I smiled and mentally noted to remember to pass him my popcorn later. So in the end, we decided to meet back in the city and went to Hawker's Cafe on Russell Street. My friends had their Ba Kut De with rice (Malaysian dish of pork ribs and tofu medicinal soup and Curry chicken with egg on rice, I had their Bee Hun Soup (basically vermicelli with crab cakes, fried shallots and vegetables). It's okay... Not as authentic as Penang Coffee House in Hawthorn or Nonya in Carlton.

What I meant to say after all that was I highly recommend 300.... I adored the movie... the cinematography, the passion, strength and bravery of the characters, and the music. The movie really gets you fired up about fighting for a righteous cause in one's life. Not only were the men strong in this movie, women were strong as well. Fearless... I want to be fearless and strong.

Go and watch 300 when it comes out.

Hawker's Cafe
213 Russell Street
Melbourne
03 9662 1867

IMAX
Melbourne Museum
Rathdowne Street
Carlton
03 9663 5454

PS. Happy April Fools Day!

Becoming a Housewife

2007-03-31T23:43:00.000+10:00

Becoming a housewife, the first step is to have a Tupperware party! Well, I love having people over, so it's just my excuse to have a few of my girlfriends here for a gourmet afternoon tea. In the end, I think the pretence of Tupperware wasn't really a good idea, as some people have an aversity to it, as I found out. As I don't have any tupperware, it was really for my sister and I to start and complete our collection.

Yvonne, my Tupperware demonstrator was fantastic. She was easy going and socialable. She demonstrated how to bake a chocolate mud cake in the microwave using their bake-easy range in 10 minutes. Well 15 because we overestimated the watt of my microwave. After that, I just thought how housewife-like this all feels!

Halfway through the product demonstration, we finished our bottle of Moet & Chandon Vintage Brut . It was great for my afternoon tea spread of antipasto, pannini bread slices, raw carrot sticks, smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches, Sis's mini scones with strawberry jam and cream, fresh strawberries, grapes, mild blue cheese. crackers and a camenbert. We had daiquiri, orange juice and opened a bottle of red wine which my sister, Yuki and I finished that off before we left..... We were soooo satisfied... I think I will organise afternoon tea more often!

Yuki gave me a present from Japan that day - a Sakura-themed mug and a box of sakura-shaped marshmellows from Starbucks in Japan. They are both gorgeous and I couldn't wait to use the mug! Yuki said to use it at work, hmm.. I think it's too precious for that...

2006 End of Year Asia Trip

2007-03-31T21:59:00.001+10:00

Here are the food related photos from our trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan at the end of last year, 2006.

Our Local Japanese - Torimatsu

2007-03-31T19:13:00.001+10:00

Noisy lunch cafe by day and All-You-Can Eat Yakiniku Japanese BBQ by night, Torimatsu is where my colleagues and I go to if we want comfort food, their delicious teriyaki salmon and piping hot agedashi tofu. Their teriyaki salmon is to-die-for! Dipped in home-made thick caramelly sweet teriyaki sauce, the salmon is juicy and chunky. There is so much sauce, that if you're lucky a large portion of the rice underneath would be covered in it.

Their set lunchs and bento boxes are wonderful and balanced, they seem to be able to make everything quite well... the tempura is crunchy, sushi is just right with the perfect amount of wasabi and the bbq chicken sucqulent.

Highly recommend a visit if you are in this area!

Torimatsu Japanese Restaurant

179 King Street

Melbourne

03 9670 9683

Ratings
Food: Simple Japanese Lunch boxes, All You Can Eat Yakiniku Japanese BBQ by night.

Top Dish: Teriyaki Salmon Don

Atmosphere: Cafe

Service: Speedy service.

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Long Lunch with Yuki

2007-03-29T15:16:00.001+10:00

It's always nice to go out for a proper lunch with good friends. I'm one of the people who just hates having sandwiches for lunch... Lunchtime should be spent indulging your belly and making the day special.

After a few SMS back and forth, Yuki and I finally found time to catch up last Thursday. She loves yumcha, so we decided to go to Oriental Tea House... It use to be called Ay Oriental Tea House (as I have mentioned before)

Oriental Tea House is a little more pricier than your typical Chinese Restaurant with you likely to spend about $20 each, even for lunch. As you can see from the photo, we had a lot.... Never order dimsum when you're hungry... the waiters don't stop you ordering too much either.
I kinda wish they have a tick-it-yourself order form, because the names of some of those dimsums are long and I am sure the waiters would appreciate it too... as they are the same people who serve people buying tea in the tea salon area. Come lunchtime, it can get pretty very busy.

I like Oriental as it's not as nosy as having Yumcha at some other Chinese Restaurants, and no trolleys to worry about. Did you know that at most Chinese Restaurants you can actually pre-order your dimsums before the trolleys come.. This is great if you are in a rush, but I understand that some like the novelty of looking at what's available on the trolley and trying something new.

Every time I've gone to Oriental, there is always people eating alone, nothing wrong with that and they look pretty comfortable as well.

The desserts at Oriental, is pretty standard, i.e. mango pudding, coconut cake etc. Well, Kokoblack is close by and I ran out of chocolate, so we opted to go to Kokoblack for some hot chocolate.

Their menu has extended to include dessert sets. The table next to us had the Belgian Spoil -
which was a chocolate platter with chocolate cake, two Belgian chocolates, a shortbread,
chocolate ice cream and chocolate mousse. Pretty good for $10.00! Yuki had the chilli hot chocolate and I had the creamy plain one. Before we left we had a look at their Easter chocolates. Oh boy, I wanted a dark chocolate bunny for my Aunty... the smallest one was $35 (TT). The little 3 pack dark chocolate bunny ganache was cheaper so I bought a few for my colleagues and they said that they were delicious.

After lunch, I rolled back to the office, content.

Oriental Tea House

322 Little Collins Street

Melbourne

03 9654 8399

Ratings
Food: Freshly steamed dimsum when you order

Top Dish: Marinated Spare Ribs

Atmosphere: Simple and airy

Service: Fast to give you the menu and sit you down but you have to wave them down. Give yourself plenty of time to get the bill as well.

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Red-Cooked Pork Belly with Mushroom & Fried Tofu

2007-03-29T14:19:00.000+10:00

I made this two weeks ago with a modified recipe from "The Food of China" cookbook. I thought I had better catch up on my blogging now, otherwise I will never catch up!

Ingrediants

500g pork belly, rind on

3 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine

3 slices of ginger

2 tablespoons of soya sauce (or 3 tablespoons of dary soya sauce)

3 hard boiled eggs, peeled (optional)

25g of white sugar (or 50g rock sugar)

6 - 8 pieces of Chinese shitake mushroom (if bought dried, remember to soak these in water first to soften)

1 stick of spring onion

Serves 4

Instructions:

Cut the pork into about 2 cm strips cutting across the layers so that all pieces have rind on them.

Then I put the pork belly into my thermo cooker with enough water to cover the pieces.

Add the soya sauce, sugar, rice wine and ginger and bring the liquid to a boil. Then simmer for about 10 minutes.

I then remove the cooked pork belly with the sauce into a casserole dish and placed the mushroom, spring onion and eggs in it and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Before serving add sugar or salt to taste. You can add dried chilli to this dish as well if you want it a little spicy. It's great with fluffy short-grain rice... that just soaks the sauce up like a sponge...

Ajisen Ramen

2007-03-29T12:28:00.001+10:00

It was one of those rare occasions that my husband was able to have lunch with me as we work at the opposite ends of the city. I think he felt bad for me when I told him that I was sick of having lunch in my area that morning. Although recently I've been going to this Indian outlet at the Food Court near where I work. The curries are fantastic, but my favourite thing there is actually the crispy salad with the yogurt sauce - delicious.

Anyways, back to our lunch, as Hubby usually has little time for lunch, we decided to go to his side of town and opted (as always) for something quick and easy, and never nasty.

Hubby wanted ramen, so we went to Ajisen Ramen, which is next to Ito Japanese Restaurant. Ajisen Ramen is a Japanese Ramen chain where their Japanese Ramen is from Kyushu, Japan. They are popular in Asia and have outlets in Canada, USA, and China as well. This is the first in Australia.

There are many things that you can have with your ramen, not only side dishes, but you can have chicken, pork, beef, plain vegetables, seafood etc. with it. I usually get their Chicken Karaage Ramen and Michael usually their Paiku Ramen. Ajisen is generous with their noodles and the dish comes with loads of vegetables and soup. The secret to it tasting extra special is in adding ubber amounts of Ajisen's red garlic powder mix that is available on your table. It is soooo tasty with it. We also tried the gyoza in earlier occasions, not bad. However, the soft shell crab is not great.

Paiku Ramen

Chicken Karaage Ramen

They also have a fine selection of Japanese soft drinks, we opted for the Grape Calpico Soda this time.

In any case, if you like ramen, and want something cheap, quick and easy, go for Ajisen Ramen.

Ajisen Ramen

130 Bourke Street

Melbourne

03 9662 1100

Japanese Homepage

Ratings
Food: Simple Japanese Ramen, Trendy Japanese Dishes

Top Dish: Chicken Karaage Ramen

Atmosphere: Bare and clean

Service: Speedy service

Booking: Not necessary

Feeling Rundown

2007-03-29T09:56:00.000+10:00

I've been feeling run-down, possibly from a little cold that I caught from my little nephew. He's so cute! It's getting better today... On Monday, not having much enthusiasm and energy for cooking, I decided to go for something easy while we took a break from watching episodes of Heroes.

First, I made a soup base from Daishi and Bonito flakes to taste, once boiled I carefully slided some bought pork and chive dumplings into the soup. In the meantime, I cut some spring onions and cleaned some king prawns that I bought from Footscray market. When the water boils again, I put the prawns in to cook until crunchy. In the serving bowls, I placed the chopped spring onion, ready for the dumplings and noodles.

The dumplings were accompanied by Taiwanese Japanese tea, I served this is the brown ceramic teapot I made when I was studying in Japan many years ago (I can't believe it can hold liquid!). I reclaimed this from my cousin. The tiny tea cups and saucer, I bought when I went to Taipei at Carrefour at the end of last year.

We still had Chinese lychees left. These were the $20 per kg ones that M's mum bought for us, as oppose to the smaller $10 per kg ones I bought in Footscray. It's worth spending the money if you love lychees, these ones were definitely much more juicer and the seeds smaller.

Belated Chinese New Year Party @ Happy Receptions

2007-03-28T20:52:00.000+10:00

Here are some photos from a Belated Chinese New Year Festival charity event that I went to on Sunday evening at Happy Receptions Ascot Vale. I am grateful for my husband's family connection and generosity that I can attend such cultural enlightening events. Before, I would have shun these types of engagements, but everyone were so friendly, we had so much fun.

For $60 per head, the menu, similar to that of a Wedding Banquet consisted of:

Suckling Pig Platter
Special Crab Claw
Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup
Lobster with Ginger, XO and Noodles
Braised Chicken with Sea Fungus
Bean Curd Rolls with Lime Sauce
Chinese Broccoli and Mushrooms
Steamed Barramundi
Fruit Platter

The evening was packed with entertainment. Unfortunately, as we sat underneath the speakers, we were bombarded with the over the top and zealous MCs, karaoke acts. Asians love karaoke and many are not afraid to have a go, to our great amusement. The highlight was the Lion Dancing and the Welcoming rituals for the Year of the Pig. So colourful, so vibrant, and again so loud!

The highlight of the charity auction was the signed Australian wines from John So and Steve Bracks, and Chinese ZaoXing Rice Wines from the Chinese Consulat. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn't as receptive as the MCs had hoped... But the John So signed wine did fetch a higher price than the Steve Bracks one - hehehehe. We didn't stay for the raffle even through I was eyeing this rather large box of some electronic goodies on stage, but we were told later that no one on our table won anything. Oh well...

Casual Dinner at Murasaki

2007-03-26T16:17:00.001+10:00

At our dinner with Mum at Murasaki last week, we ordered mostly off the Special Menu with Sushi Entree, Salmon Belly Sashimi, Crab Croquettes, Marinated Rare Wagyu Beef Slices with Onion, Gyutan with Lemon, and finished with a shared Soyu ramen.

Older Related Post - 'Overeating at Murasaki"

Murasaki
24 Russell Street
Melbourne
03 9654 5437

Ratings

Food: Brillantly presented Japanese food.

Top Dish: Crab (Kani) Croquette

Atmosphere: Elegant and Homey

Service: The Saito Family will take good care of you!

Booking: Recommended especially when major events occur around the city.

Nudel Bar - I Stand to be Corrected

2007-03-24T01:23:00.001+11:00

For my colleague's birthday, Mary decided to take us to the other side of Bourke Street. She said that we would decide where to go when we get there... Fine, anything but Nudel Bar, I thought. But when we stopped in front of Cellar Bar and Nudel Bar, and the unanimous vote was for Nudel Bar. So, I walked in trailing behind the others, expecting nothing, but left with a new respect for this established CBD institution.

Last time, Hubby and I ordered Asian dishes like the Wonton noodles and BBQ Pork noodles, that's where we went wrong. These classic Chinese dishes cannot compare with the cheaper and more MSG-fueled ones in Chinatown. However, this time round I absolutely loved my buckwheat noodles. Love love love them.

I had the Special of the Day, Roasted Rare Beef Slices with Buckwheat Noodles, that came with sauteed spinach, chopped spring onion, fresh baby radish and a light wasabi dressing. My colleagues had the Dark Soya Flat Noodles and Curry Laksa. I just loved my dish. The laksa was spicy hot, the noodles filling. Along with our noodles, we had glasses of roses.

The waitress was really attentative, especially after I let slip that it was my colleague's birthday. She made many menu suggestions and generously poured us the remainder of the rose without additional charge. So much for brain power in the afternoon.

I can't wait to go back again... first I have to convince Hubby.

Nudel Bar
76 Bourke Street
Melbourne 03 9662 9100

Ratings

Food: Noodle based dishes - Italian, Asia and Fusion.

Top Dish: Ask for the Special Dishes of the Day

Atmosphere: Easygoing with high benches with stools or cafe tables

Service: Friendly and Attentative.

Booking: Recommended for dinner but not essential

Headline - Chewing the fat

2007-03-23T11:08:00.001+11:00

I am always fasinated by any information I can get about Wagyu. In the beginning of this year I downloaded the history of Wagyu from the Blackmore Wagyu Farm website. Very interest. Apparently, Blackmore makes the best grade wagyu in Australia (Marble Score of 9+) today and the herd are breed right here in Alexandra, Victoria. I wonder if they are open to visitors....

The Age Epicure Article Chewing the fat by Richard Cornish March 20, 2007
Courtesy of theage.com.au

The Evoluation of Blogging

2007-03-22T10:43:00.000+11:00

Sometime in 1971Stanford's Les Earnest creates the "finger" protocol.
December 1977 The finger protocol becomes an official standard.
January 1994 Swarthmore student Justin Hall begins compiling lists of links at his site, links.net, and continues adding to the site for 11 years.
January 1995 Early online diarist Carolyn Burke publishes her first entry for Carolyn's Diary.
April 1997 Dave Winer launches Scripting News, which he calls the longest-running Web log currently on the Internet.
September 1997 Slashdot begins publishing "News for Nerds."
December 1997 Jorn Barger's RobotWisdom.com site apparently becomes the first to call itself a Web log.
Sometime in 1999• Brad Fitzpatrick launches Livejournal, which he calls his "accidental success." • Peter Merholz of Peterme.com declares he has decided "to pronounce the word 'weblog' as 'wee-blog.' Or 'blog' for short." • The word "blog" first appears in print, according to dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
August 1999 Three friends who founded a San Francisco start-up called Pyra Labs create a tool called Blogger "more or less on a whim."
January 2001 First crop of blogs nominated for the "Bloggies" award.
October 2001First version of Movable Type content management software becomes available.
February 2003 Google acquires Pyra and its Blogger software.
May 2003 First official version of WordPress open-source blogging software released for download.
October 2003 Six Apart releases first version of its Typepad blogging service.
January 2004 Boston-based Steve Garfield launches his video blog, considered one of the first such "vlogs."
October 2005 VeriSign buys Dave Winer's Weblogs.com. Around the same time, AOL snaps up blog publisher Weblogs Inc.
February 2006 Veteran blogger Jason Kottke abandons his yearlong attempt to live off of micropayments through his blog.
January 2007 Members of the Media Bloggers Association are among the first bloggers to receive press credentials from a federal court.
February 2007 Freelance video blogger Josh Wolf becomes the longest-serving journalist behind bars in U.S. history, on contempt charges.

Taiwanese Egg Pancakes for Breakfast

2007-03-19T15:17:00.001+11:00

Every year when I go to Taipei, a visit to the local breakfast stall near my Grandparents house in Ximending is essential at least once. There, we usually get a few scorching sweetened soya bean milk in large paper cups or in clear plastic bags to go, Chinese Fried Doughnut sticks (YouTiao) and fried egg pancakes, all made fresh to order. I've gotten my husband hook on these local delicacy as well that he reminds me if we are close to the end of our trip in Taipei and we haven't gone to the stall yet.

In Melbourne, you can get these in Taiwanese cuisine cafes but they are not the same... somehow the Taiwanese ones are more fluffy and floury. I've watched them cook it a few times, and I believe the fluffiness comes from adding a little surplus egg mixture into the pan while the pancake is cooking.

My version is not as authentic as they make the thin pastry from scratch. I use the widely available plain roti bread from Asian grocery stores. The important thing here is to take the roti bread out of the fridge about 30minute earlier so that they soften. Also unfold them to get as thin a roti slice as you possibly can so you're getting more egg than pancake per serve.

Once you have prepared the roti, dip the slices into your egg mix (I used two eggs in this instance). Let it soak for about 10 sec and make sure that the whole of the roti bread is soaked with egg mix. For pan-frying and for Asian cuisine I usually use peanut oil for flavour.

After you've placed the egg pancakes on the pan, add a little egg mixture on time. Preferably more evenly than I have!

End result - fluffy Taiwanese egg pancakes! Usually you should have this with thick soya sauce, but I didn't have any so I had it with Maggi Seasoning, which is just as good. I wished I had a nice cold soya bean milk drink too! Oh well.. two additional items for the grocery list.

At Grand Taipei Restaurant in Box Hill, they serve theirs with spring onion and garlic in their egg mix. I must to make this next time.

Dinner @ Tea House - Punt Hill Apartments

2007-03-19T12:06:00.001+11:00

Neatly disguised inside Punt Hill Apartments

Beef Brisket with White Radish, Ginger in a Clear Broth

Baby Spinach Stir-Fried in Chilli and XO Sauce

Salt and Pepper Calamari with Deep Fried Spinach

All great dishes...

Ratings

Food: Fantastic Cantonese Cuisine, similar to Flower Drum quality

Top Dish: Salt and Pepper Calamari with Deep Fried Spinach

Atmosphere: Elegant and cozy

Service: Speedy service with knowledgable staff who can all make recommendations.

Booking: Recommended but not essential

Kenzan Decades of Memories

2007-03-16T15:51:00.001+11:00

...Seeing how fast one can drive down the spiraling passage to the Regency car park in Mum’s e-Class

… green and white summer school uniform against the high sushi bench chairs
… practicing my limited Japanese with the always smiling and energetic sushi chefs, including Daisuke
… piping hot tempura prawns that burn the roof of your mouth if you’re not careful
… toro sashimi flown (and probably hand carried) from Japan
... Mum treating us to Japanese bento after high school for lunch

Over two decades, my family and I have frequented Kenzan Japanese Restaurant for many afternoons and evenings. Many things have changed but the soul of Kenzan never changes. It is a small world…. One of the lovely onejian that worked there is now one of our dear friend’s partner…. What a small world….Many of the chefs have moved on to better and greater things… and you could say that they have trained a lot of chefs who bring such a greater variety and depth of Japanese food to Melbourne… There weren’t many authentic Japanese restaurants back in the day… but there was Kenzan (and Suntory of course).

Changing of time, changing of ownership, but the food remain authentic and of the highest quality.

Our usual meal consists of a combination of starters and mains… rarely do we get to order many of the mains as the starters and entree dishes are exceptional. We always order from the Special menu first and supplement it with the normal dishes in the a la carte menu. All this time, the a la carte menu has not changed but the Special Menu has becoming noticeably adventurous. Of course, there are dishes that we always order, such as the stuffed fried mushrooms, sashimi and sushi moriawase, the tempura moriawase and what our dad likes to call “chicken nuggets” – tori karaage. Depending on the season and our collective appetite, we might add to the bill, agedashi tofu, grilled fish, chawa mushi, pipi soup, and nabeyaki udon.

Salmon belly, a new recommendation recently received by one of the sushi chef, is definitely going to be a staple addition to the bill, especially if toro is not available. Out of all the sushi and sashimi, this one is the one to fight with the other patrons for. As soon as you sit down, you should ask the waiter/waitress whether there is toro or salmon belly available…. before they are all gone.

Ratings

Food: Quality authentic Japanese food
Top Dish: Salmon belly sushi
Atmosphere: Homey
Service: Generally okay especially the drinks maestro. It used to be better when turnover was lower.
Booking: Recommended (especially for the sushi bar) but not essential

Kenzan Japanese Restaurant
Collins Place
45 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
03 9654 8933