Nutmeg's Cafe

Bloodwood

2011-12-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

Hmm... I just notice that I forgot to write about Bloodwood since 2010. I didn't want to delete it since I remember that foods and atmosphere there is good. The thing 's I can't remember how good it was. So, I decided to publish this post as I found it.

I hadn't been to Bloodwood since its opening in March and everyone raved about it. I was a lot behind schedule because I hadn't been there evenwhen Duke Bistro first opened its door in late October.

It wouldn't be fun to dine alone here since Bloodwood offers share plate style. Translated... I can't order much just to eat by myself.

My chance came when my mom visited me last month.

Fresas Verano ($15) and non-alcoholic Fresas Verano ($8)

Polenta chips w gorgonzola dipping sauce ($9)

Pork&Prawn w garlic chives, and water chestnuts wrapped in beancurd skin ($15)

Baked mushroom braised in red wine, confit shallots ($17) was very earthy.

Garlic prawns ($25) - its aroma reminded me of Thai's 'kra prao kung'. It is similar but not the same.

Sugardaddy chocolate torte ($12) w pedro ximenez, buttermilk mousse

Bloodwood Trifle ($12) strawberries, pound cake, ros'e jelly, mascapone, champagne anglise

Kamameshi-shizuka

2011-12-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

59 Nohorioji-cho Nara (close to National museum)
Tel: 0742-22-8030
Open: 11 am-8pm (close on Tuesday)

"What is the queqe is for? Don't know, look like a cafe/restaurant, let's go check!" This is almost constant conversation between me and my aunt while we travelled in Kansai, Japan. We stumbled across Kamameshi-Shizuka on the way from Kintetsu Nara station to Todaiji Temple. After snapping a few pictures with deers in Nara park, my aunt spotted a queqe across a street at one restaurant.

So, we crossed there, queqed up, then found out this restaurant is specialized for kamameshi (rice cooked in an iron pot). While we were waiting, time wasn't wasted. The restaurant took our orders then prepared our meal since it takes time to properly cook kamameshi.

My 'Nara Nanashu-Kamameshi' (Y1,155) It's a bit of everything from prawns, grilled eel, Hiroshima oysters, chickhen, peas, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shouts, carrots, and burdocks. This dish truly shows pure ingredients' taste. My favorite 'd be oysters, which taste like ocean. I really wanted to hit myself when I was writing this blog. I just saw that the restaurant has special menu which is Hiroshima oysters kamameshi. Think how good it would be, droooool.

My aunt's 'Kani kamameshi' (Y1,050) since she loves crab.

Hmm... I forget to take picture of the whole set before start eating.

Burnt rices at a bottom of a pot is another way to enjoy rice.

I'm full and happy now :D Time to go to Todaiji temple.

After a few hours of visiting Todaiji temple, taking pictures of autumn foliage, and saw lots of deers. We headed back to a train station.

The quequ is still there... hmm..

D.O.M. in Bangkok

2011-12-05T00:33:00.000-08:00

I was looking forward to today lunch for nearly a month. Oh! no, I didn't have a date. Infact, I had lunch alone today. But today is a special lunch because the lunch is provided by Chef Alex Atala and his team from D.O.M., currently ranked 7th Best Restaurant in the World 2011 from San Pellegrino, at Sukhothai hotel.

I almost asked a waitress for a more brighter table when I was presented to my table. Luckily, I turned around and realized that I was actually given one of the best tables (at least from my perspective) 'cos my table faced an open kitchen. Light doenn't matter anymore.

There was a menu provided on each table. After I read it, well... I wasn't 100% sure of what I was I going to eat. Maniac? Fishote?? Tucopi???

Now they're ready!

Amuse-bouche: Thousand Layers of Manioc is a stack of thinly sliced brazilian potato with cow milk cheese, port reduction, and chives.

Bread to nibble

Chibe - Brazilian Couscous is couscous cooked with squids and prawns, brazilian herbs, red onion, and lemon juice. Personally, I think this dish is very similar in taste to Thai seafood salad. Maybe it's because of the combination of herbs, onion, and lemon juice. Overall, it's very refreshing and please to an eye.

Filhote with Tucupi sauce. This one's my favorite. It's salty, buttery, and slightly sour. Fish is cooked to perfection. The little flower on top of the fish is native Brazilian plant which gives tart and fussy taste.

Duck Confit with Bras Manioc basil oil.

Brazil Nut Tart with Whisky Ice Cream, Curry Chocolate, Salt, Rocket and Pepper

Sukhothai Blended latte (by Lavassa) and Mignardises yusu and wasabi cream fraiche, ginger coconut chocolate ganache. Surprisingly, coffee here changed my view over hotel coffee. It was decent.

Oveall, I found 4 courses menu for 2,500++ Baht is a reasonable price for very entertaining and sophisicated meal. All foods look very simple but it's very difficult to prepare such perfect dishes.

Ponganes* * *

2011-09-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

This petite espresso bar is located just a few minute walk from Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai. I first came here with Ja, who wanted to wish her friends good luck on their first day at the espresso bar. We went there on the 2nd of July while the actual open day is on the 3rd of July. Pong and Nes, owners of Ponganes, explained to us that it'll be bad luck for them to accept money before the actual open day. Thus, everything 'll be on the house for all customers and they 'll donate all the tips that day.

I confess that I didn't put up an expectation when Ja told me her friends were going to open up a coffee bar eventhough she told me that Pong worked as a barista for a couple of years in Sydney. Not until I saw the coffee machine and the espresso bar itself that my heart skipped a beat. I know right that minute that I can get a good cup of coffee there!

Two months later, I had a chance to go back to Chiang Mai and visited Ponganes. Pong told me that he finally happy with his house blend, 'Moon Muang' blend, which comprises of beans from 4 different origins.

What lure me back to Ponganes isn't that I now know Pong and Nes. The only reason I went back there is for a cup of smooth, good grip of acidity, and great body coffee with perfect milk temperature to start my day.

Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin * *

2011-01-18T09:30:00.000-08:00

Lunch: Mon-Fri 12.00-15.00

Dinner: Daily 18.00-23.00

Tel: (02)162 9000

Chef Henrik Yde-Andersen and Chef Lertchai Treetawatchaiwong from Kiin Kiin in Copenhagen opened their second restaurant in Siam Kempinski Hotel, Bangkok called 'Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin', which offers modern Thai cuisine in degustation style.

Sra Bua's current menu: 3 courses lunch at 1,500++ (upper picture) and 10 courses dinner at 2,400++ (lower picture)

I had chilled lemongrass and pandan leave drink (complimentary drink) while waiting for Beansprout. It was sweet and aromatic.

It's very easy to dine with Beansprout. We agreed to share foods so we can cover almost the whole menu, except I Tim Saparod. 'Cos there're 3 choices of desserts.

There're 3 nibblings: 'ข้าวเกรียบสาคูกรอบ' Seaweed Tapioca w Oyster Sauce Dip (upper picture), 'ขนมกรอบถั่วเหลืองเมอร์แรงกับเผ็ดมะม่วง' Soy Meringue Roasted Cashews, and 'รากบัวกรอบรสมะกรูด' Kefir Lime Leaf Scented Lotus Root (lower picture).

Seaweed tapioca was crispy and neutral to compliment oyster sauce dip. The dip was foamed and tasted spicy and slightly sour liked seafood sauce. Lotus roots were dried, sugar coated, scented with kaffir lime leaves. Soy meringues tasted slightly salty from soy sauce. To rank these nibblings, my favorite'd be the dip, then meringues, followed by lotus roots.

Starter: 'แกงแดงเย็นกับกุ้งมังกร' Gang dang frozen red curry with lobster salad.

Red curry was deconstructed and the curry itself was in the form of ice cream with chopped cashew as added texture at the bottom of the dish. It was quite sweet and spicy but pleasant to eat.

Starter: 'ยำกุ้งแม่น้ำกับส้มโอและดอกไม้' Yam goong river prawn salad with pomelo and orchids. The greens was the combination of shaved cucumber, daikon, and celery. It tasted robust and very spicy, which I like. Although I think there was too few pomelo.

Main course: 'ต้มข่านกกระทา' Quail in coconut milk with galangal and mushrooms. This is my most favorite dish. Its taste was very well balance, light, hot, and slightly sour. I like the idea to use quail instead of chicken plus there were 2 types of cooked quail in the dish. The chef used poached quail breast and quail leg confited, which both were moist and juicy. Crispy chicken skin (yes, chicken skin not quail skin) was good as well. Another added texture was small cubes of jelly made of stock.

Main course: 'แกงเขียวหวานปลาแฮรีบัทใส่บีทรูท' Halibut fish in green coconut curry and beetroot. It was 'red' green curry. Its redness was solely from beetroot; pureed and foamed. It also had roasted, peeled, and pureed eggplant to give charcoal tasted in the dish. The dish tasted salty and spicy with a hint of sweet. It was the only dish that needs rice to compliment it.

Rice (included in the lunch course)

Dessert: 'ไอศกรีมชา กิน กิน' Cha Kiin Kiin Jasmine and Earl Grey. I believe ice cream flavour was earl grey tea and Thai tea, while the white foam is flavoured by jasmine tea. White chocolate was sprinkle all over the dish. This dessert was aromatic and sweet, a great dessert to end the meal in warm weather.

Dessert: 'เค้กกล้วยหอมกับกะทิ' Banana Cake with Salted coconut ice cream and caramelized milk, which was served in wooden bowl. Beansprout and I debated on which type of banana Sra Bua used to make this banana cake. We finally asked and it turned out that we were both wrong. Banana cake is made from 'Pisang Mas' bananas (กล้วยไข่). It served with shreded fresh coconut and dried coconut. Banana cake was sticky and not sweet but it went well with salty ice cream and sweetness of caramelized milk and palm sugar.

'Doi Tung' Coffee & petit fours (325 Baht++): Clockwised - freezed green grape coated with icing sugar, peanut butter chocolate (rectangular shape), crispy rice coated with white chocolate, salted and sichuan pepper chocolate (round shape), mashmellows dusted with shredded coconut, and coffee macaron. Petit fours weren't bad but they were too ordinary.

Overall, foods taste authentic to me although Sra Bua takes new approach for the presentation. My meal was pleasant and it was good to see Thai food presented in this way.

Restaurant Arras

2011-01-13T09:36:00.000-08:00

Monica highly recommended Restaurant Arras when I asked her where should I bring my mom for degustation ($130). So we went...

My heart was melted by snacks bowl. It ensured me that desserts'd be supert... yumm...

Amuse Bouche

Green Salad, Ash Goats Cheese - this is my favorite of the night with sweet and salty, smooth and creamy texture, and a showcase for pea and asparagus.

Scallops, Potato and Grapes

Eel Nicoise

Green, Purple, White

Smoking Peking Duck

Beef, Dripping, Nasturtium and Aligot

A Pre Dessert

Life gave us Lemons... and Limes... - is a celebration of citrus fruits.

Petit four tray was impressive... By the time a waitress finished to tell me the name of the fourth petit four... I already forgot the first one. From what I chose, my favorite'd be orange lolly with dehydrated lime juice (the one in a glass).

Duke Bistro, Darlinghurst

2011-01-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

65 Flinders St. Darlinghurst
Sydney, NSW 2010
Phone. 02 9332 3180

It was my last dinner with Monica before I go back home for good. My mom, Monica, Ony, and I went there since we all haven't been there before.

Hemmingway, the bar hog.

As we're 4 persons, we decided to have 9 dishes+2 desserts. We later told Beansprout, our foodies friend, that we'd have the whole menu if she came with us.

This was the first time my mom went out with my fellow food bloggers. She was embarrass at first when Monica, Ony, and I took our camera out and went into action. She uses to it now, lol.

Fritto Misto ($16)

Kingfish Gin and Tonic ($18) - corinda seeds, lime, cucumber

Char-grilled Watermelon & Fresh Herbs ($10)

Fried Chicken Wings, Coleslaw Milk, Hot Sauce ($10)

Egg, Seasonal Mushrooms, Almonds - Thyme, butter sautee ($15)

Tater Tots, Duke Gravy, Edamame ($15) - with veal

Beef Shortrib Pancakes ($20)

Lamb Belly, Cumin, Eggplant, Pearl Onions ($16)

Wagyu, Herb Dressing, Roast Cos Lettuce ($24)

Special - Peach w soft merieng (left) and Knickerbocker Glory - beetroot puree, mango jelly, vanilla ice cream (right)

This's a cute way to give a bill, isn't it?

District Dinning (seconded time)

2011-01-01T19:30:00.000-08:00

This place's my mom's favorite during her trip downunder. It's the only place she declared the food's 'อร่อย', meaning delicious. While some other places, she said only 'ดี', aka good.

Beetroots, Sumac, Salted yoghurt, Basil ($16)

Ras el hanout quail, peach chutney, Brioche, Pomegranate ($18)

Riverine Premium Sirloin, Green harissa, Kipfler potato ($28)

Strawberries, Raspberries, Meringue & Vanilla Cream ($12)

Efi's rice pudding, Cinnamon ice cream ($12)

SushiSuma

2010-12-31T19:34:00.000-08:00

485 Cleveland Street, Redfern
Tue-Fri: 12.00-14.00, Tue-Sun: 18.00-22.00

After reading good reviews about foods at SushiSuma and not so good reviews about its service, I decided to give it a go. My mom and I shared sashimi+tempura set ($14.90), sashimi+sushi set ($14.90), and Una Ju ($15.90).

Sashimi was very fresh

Sushi.. hmm... I forgot to take picture until my mom reminded me. But the damage was done. We already ate some rolls.

Tempura was crisp, juicy, and not oily.

Una Ju took a while to cook but worth the wait except that I was so full by the time it arrived. So I took away it back home but not before tasting the eel first. The eel was sweet and succulent. The sauce was sweet but not too sweet.

Agadashi tofu (including in the set) was crisp on the outside and smooth in the inside.

Overall, food was great with a bonus of inexpensive price. Service wasn't as bad as reviews I read. It was more likely that they were very busy and it was hard to get there attention. So come prepare! The food's worth coming.

Pre-Theatre Dinner at Aria

2010-12-27T16:38:00.000-08:00

I wanted to eat Andrew Honeysett's desserts one more time before heading back home. So, my mom and I went to Aria for pre-theatre dinner ($85 for 3 courses) before we watched Jersey Boys that night.

We started the night with complementary Amuse Bouche - smooth, creamy, and sweet onion soup with slightly salty pancetta crumbs.

Bread and butter

My mom's entree: Consommé - Peking duck consommé with duck dumplings, shaved abalone and mushrooms. The rich mushroom aroma was very appertizing.

Scallops - roasted, shaved Brussels sprout salad, pumpkin purée and a raisin and caper dressing. Scallops were cooked to perfection. Loved the presentation, loved the taste.

My mom's main course:Murray Cod - seared fillet of Murray cod, sautéed razor clams with sweet corn,parsley and grilled pancetta.

My main course: Beef - char-grilled Rangers Valley sirloin with a cauliflower and bacon croquette,roasted king brown mushrooms and a grain mustard sauce.

My mom's dessert: Pavlova - with passionfruit, mango, saffron cream, and lime and basil sorbet

My dessert: Pineapple - vanilla ice cream and pineapple sorbet ‘bombe’ with roasted pineapple consommé. Sorbet was at the tip of the bombe.

Petit fours: lemon merienge tart, lamington chocolate, salted caramel chocolate

Assiette, Spring 2010 Degustation

2010-12-21T07:40:00.000-08:00

My mom and I went to Assiette on my last night in Sydney.

We opted for 10 courses degustation ($99) since I know that Warren Turnbull's foods won't fail me, which proved to be true. The later dish was better than the previous one.

Warm bread

Summer berries mocktails ($10)

Seasonal oyster with Vietnamese dressing and baby coriander - The oyster that day was creamy Sydney Rock oyster, which complimented by tangy and refreshing dressing and crispy fried shallots.

Sashimi style Hiramasa kingfish with wasabi panacotta, radish and ginger marmalade - The dish was sweet, light, and delicated, which had cucumber and puffed rice as added texture.

Cured Marlborough salmon with prawn beignet, orange, mandarin and fennel - Prawn beignet was crispy on the outside, juicy in the inside, topped with orange mayonese. Melted in my mouth freezed dried mandarin was lovely. But my most favorite element of the dish's fennel sorbet.

Cannelloni of beetroot and goats curd with beetroot salad and pinenut vinaigrette - It was a celebration of beetroot with beetroot jelly formed as cannelloni filled with goats curd, beetroot salad, roasted beetroot, and beetroot crisp. Basil was presented in jelly form, which I love.

Terrine of Thirlmer duck and fois gras with cured duck breast, caramelised peach and brioche - It was served with fig puree and prune puree.

Pan fried dory with seared scallop, onion bhaji, cauliflower puree and mango chutney - Scallop was perfectly cooked. Dory was tangy with lemon but went well with sautee leek with butter. Onion bhaji was slightly salty.

Roasted Junee lamb loin with caramalised sweetbreads, miso-glazed eggplant and olive crumble - Lamb was perfectly cooked, served with wilted spinach, pickled daikon, and creamy celeriac puree. Crunchy deep fried sweetbreads was lovely. Eggplant was crunchy, creamy, and sweet.

So many utensils for desserts ^^

Brillat-Savarin cheese cake with honeyed walnuts and pear puree, served with freezed dried cherry, crumbed biscuit, and crisp toasted raisin bread. I love the combination of creamy, earthy, and sweet with texture.

Granny Smith apple jelly with vanilla syrup and apple granita - with tiny apply pieces.

Necarine parfait with strawberry tapioca, summer berries and raspberry sorbet - It was light dessert dish not as heavy as its presentation.

sour Passionfruit jelly as a complimentary.

Cupping session at Campos, Newtown

2010-12-04T03:35:00.000-08:00

I know about cupping session ($8.80 per 45 minutes) at Campos from Simon Food Favorite blog and I can't wait to go there. I booked a Thursday 9 am session and it was only me doing cupping with the barista +_o It was really intimidated at first, then I was guided and drown into the coffee world. There were 5 single origin coffee for cupping plus 1 generic supermarket coffee. The 5 single origin were Guatemalan Natural Huehuetenango, Ethiopian Lekempti, PNG Marawaka, Indian Monsoon, and Kenya Tembo.

First, we had a look at each green bean first to learn how farmers process the coffee from fresh cherries to green beans. Generally, there're 2 ways to process coffee cherries; wet process and dry process. PNG, Indian, and Kenya, in the cupping session, were processed by 'Wet process' (washed coffee) means cheeries are pulped to remove the skin and then fermented and washed. After washing, beans will then sun dry. Green beans using this process'll get even color. On the other hand, Guatemalan and Ethiopian beans in the cupping were naturally processed (dry process), which can see from the unequal color of the green beans. These beans were sun dried.

First step was to inhale 'dry coffee' fragrant. Both Guatemalan and Ethiopian had flora on the nose although Ethiopian had sweether fragrant than a Guatemalan one. PNG was smooth. Indian coffee was robust, earthy, and spicy. Kenya smelled different, more complex. While, generic supermarket coffee has no fragrant at all.

After that, the barista poured 5 oz. hot water (93 degree) into 10gram of ground coffee in order to inhale 'wet' aroma. We waited for 4 minutes for coffee to brew. After 4 minutes wait, we broke the crust and inhaled aroma again. Aroma of each coffee were stronger and gave more characteristic. PNG coffee aroma was quite savory (compared to sweet). The most disgusting one was supermarket one. It was smelled like uncooked flour to me.

The next step was the yummiest part; tasting coffee flavour. We scooped out floated ground coffee then we started slurping and tasting. Theorectically, I have to slurp loudly the same way as eating ramen BUT I don't know how to properly slurp. I need to practice on that area! First round, quickly slurped coffee from each cup, rolled coffee in my mouth, spitted coffee out then moved on. Then tasting again more slower.

Each coffee not only have different aroma but also have different flavour, i.e. Guatemalan coffee tastes like riped red cherry while Ethiopian one tastes closer to peaches. PNG was quite neutral, which's good to use as a base for the blend. India Monsoon's definitely good with milk with nutty, robust taste. My favorite was Kenya, it was juicy and wet. I couldn't place what it tasted like, I know that it was citrus fruits but which one? Lime, lemon, bergamot, or orange, etc? The barista took pity on me and told me that it was 'finger lime'. Now I have to find finger lime, taste it, and remember its flavour.

There was another tasting when coffee was cool down. Guatemalan wasn't good when it was cool. I didn't mine drinking Ethiopian one though. PNG and Indian weren't good as well. But I drank almost half cup of Kenya when it grew cold (cupping cup next to Campos take away cup). Its profile just changed. I think it tastes more like stone fruits when it's cold. I will definitely buy it before going back home. There's no use to buy now since roasted coffee life's about 4 weeks from roasting date.

Along the way, the barista told me how to blend the beans. It's purely art. The way to do's by trying to taste each single origin coffee together to see how they marriage. For Campos Suprerior blend, they blend 11 different types of beans together to get Campos signature flavour.

Brewing coffee by french press

2010-11-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

I started to seriously use a french press aka plunger for coffee in 2009 when I came to Melbourne. Before that, I used plunger only for tea.

At first, I though using a plunger to brew coffee's the easiest method. Buy ground beans, put about ground coffee into a plunger, put some hot water in, wait for about 5 minutes, and I get my coffee. Did I work? Yeah, it works out alright though sometime my coffee burnt or overextracted or underextracted depending on how much coffee and water I put into a plunger.

Time pass and I obsess with coffee more than I though. Cofee doesn't taste like coffee anymore. It has different characteristics depending its origin, roaster, and stuffs. I LOVE coffee perfume... sometime it smells like lily, rose, or jasmine, etc. Tastewise, it can range in a similar way to wine's tasting note.

When I found coffee beans I like, I want to have it everyday. Buying beans to brew my own coffee sounds practical and economical. BUT coffee doesn't taste the same on my plunger!!! Sometime it worked out fine but most of the time my coffee lost its characters. Alas...

I start to look for the fool proved method to brew coffee with plunger. The key to success's measuring everything... coffee weight, water weight, and water temperature. It'll give you consistency.

Market Lane coffee in Melbourne suggests 60-70 g of coffee per 1 litre of water while James Hoffmann suggests that 60-75g coffee / 1 litre water's a good ratio (he even has a clip to show how to successfully brew coffee). 1 Litre of water seems to much for me, so I broke the ratio down just for one cup of coffee (150 ml), it equals to 9-10.5g of ground coffee (Market Lane Coffee) and 9-11.25 g of ground coffee (Jim Seven). My ratio's 10g/150ml. It's an easy number to remember and still within their ratios.

Result? Now, I'm not only obsess with my coffee but I also obsess with scale :P

Bistro Papillon

2010-11-30T02:04:00.000-08:00

I always love a petite French bistro atmosphere especially the one decorated with wood and yellow light and plays french songs. This bistro's exactly what I like, it sets my mood.

I had Ocean Trout papadella w olive oil, mixed green, preserved lemon, pasley, and parmesan ($29). It was flavourful but the trout itself was quite dry.

For dessert, I went for Crumble aux Pommes ($13). It served with maple syrub and walnut ice cream, and a tiny bit of ginger. Crumble was very fine crumbed given the dessert a soft texture. The dessert was alright, sweet, pleasant to eat.
Overall, foods was o.k. liked I won't try to change a place when my friends want to come here but it didn't wow me. Service's worth mentioned, very attentive staffs.

Coffee class level 1, Introduction to Espresso, at Toby's Estate, Sydney

2010-11-30T01:19:00.000-08:00

'Barista's the most important in making a cup of coffee' was what Tom Hespe told the class before we started making our own coffee. I couldn't agree with him more since I'm very specific on who's making my coffee. With some barista, I don't care what beans or machine he/she uses as long as he/she is the one who make my coffee.

A class began by learning that coffee is grown in parts of the world that have warm climate, lots of rains, rich soil, and high altitute. In translation, coffee is mostly grown in Africa, central America, and South America, South and South East Asia. Although some area in Australia and China also grow coffee.

Then we moved to processing, roasting, and storing coffee beans. Oxygen, heat, moisture, and light are coffee beans nemesis. To buy coffee beans, we should look at the roasted date since coffee'll go stale 4 weeks after roasting.

After Tom wrapped up the coffee background, we moved on to dosing, grinding, and tempering. In short, I have to fill ground coffee up close to the top of the basket. Then 'collapse' it by knock it down twice. After that, fill the basket up a bit more and flaten the top of the basket before tempering it. Above picture's what ground coffee, so called 'cookie', should look like after extracting coffee.

To pull a shot, it's ideally that coffee start to drip into a cup 5-10 minutes after starting the machine. Then it's supposingly to pull about 30 ml of coffee within 28-32 seconds. I also have to watch coffee color. It should come out as thick, hazelnut-coloured (with skin on, ofcourse!) and pours like honey from a spoon. I should stop when coffee starts 'blonding', meaning lighter olor and the brew starts waving. At the stage of blonding, the machine'll extract only caffeine which gives only the bitterness to coffee.

Now, it was time to pull a shot. My first shot, down the sink. I tampered too hard that coffee didn't come out after 10 seconds. How did I know? I actually counted silently everytime I pulled a shot.

My second shot, it was better. And, I got 'tiger strips' Huray!!! I didn't know what it mean but it should be good, lol. Tom then explained that it was what we should look in a good espresso shot. After practicing, most of my shot came out after 8 seconds and I got 30 ml of coffee at 25 seconds. I need more practice! Practice makes perfect :D

Steaming milk is the harder part for me. The above photo's the demonstation ranging from ristrestto on the far right, then espresso, machiatto, piccolo latte, latte, and flat white.

First step to steam milk is pouring milk into a jar, just about half a jar since milk'll be air-raised when steaming. Then steaming. Although the ideal milk temperature's 60-65 degree, I suppose to pull a jar of milk from steamer when the temperature reachs around 55 degree and the residual heat'll warm the milk temperature up to Tom's ideal temperature of 62 degree. After steaming milk, knock the bubble down then spinning the milk to prevent separation.

I thrown coffee down the sink several time before Tom approved my white coffee. Above's my very first white coffee.

I felt my latte's color isn't right but Tom said it was o.k. I think it was my espresso problem. Sigh... I'm now fussing with my own coffee making.

These two have better than the previous ones but less frost, ahh... I need to practice more!

The Shortlist

2010-11-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

258 Abercrombie St, Darlington
Open: M-F 7am-4pm, Sat 8am-4pm, Sun 9am-3pm

I used this place to hide from my friends, prove read my papers, or have a lazy Sunday.

I like places running by female baristas since they generally have softer hands than male baristas. What?

My reason is most baristas're trained to steam milk by hand (no termometer). When they work with heat for a time being, their hands becomes hardened and less sensitive to the heat. Since girls're likely to use hand cream, which help soften their hands, coffee temperature should be perfect.

They have choices of houseblend and single origin.

Bacon and egg roll ($6) tasted just like my childhood weekends breakfast. Bacon, fried egg w running eggyoke, tomato sauce, onion jam. Sweet, salty, and creamy... yumm..

Little Marrionette

2010-11-28T05:38:00.000-08:00

I alway love the trip to Balmain; weekends markets, brunch, AZ's cakes, and coffee.

But this was my first time to Lt. Marrionette 'cos it's a very tiny little cafe with only 4 tables and always packs during the weekends. And I personally hate a taste of paper cup.

My latte was clean, a note of acidity, dark chocolate, and hazelnut with light body.

Dae Jang Kum Korean BBQ

2010-11-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

35 Goulburn Street, Haymarket

It was a hazard. I couldn't find a place to eat. I had to have early dinner on Sunday late afternoon before going to see musical show at 6 p.m. Dae Jang Kum seemed like a good idea since it opens almost 24 hrs.

I went there around 5 p.m. and had 'beef rib & chinese cabbage soup' 우거지갈비탕, $13.

It is served with a bowl of rice and 5 side dishes.

Soup was bubbling hot. Very pretty w sliced green and red chilli.

Beef fell apart though it wasn't melt in my mounth. But I don't care, the soup was so yummy. It was sweet, hot, and spicy. Luckily, chilli was mellow 'cos it was cooked since I had trouble to see sliced green chilli so I ate them all.

My favorite side dishes're cooked potatoes in light soy sauce, radish gimji, and pasta. Potatoes were so sweet and had different texture in each pieces. Some tasted like sweet potato. The others had different texture, more fluffy and less sweet. Radish was crunchy, sweet, and spicy. I know that pasta and cream salad dressing wasn't authentic to Korean foods but it works for me.

Strangers with Candy

2010-11-28T04:20:00.000-08:00

I stumble into this place on the way back from Mayan coffee & Xocolat. I went back there today for breky since I don't think my mom'll come with me just for foods. She'll visit me and we'll go back to Thailand together. She loves to shop and the problem about this place's it's in middle of nowhere. I can't lure my mom to shop around here, can't I?

I had freshly squeezed OJ ($5) to detox myself from my coffee trip this week.

Smoked salmon, sour cream, rockets, sliced red onion and eggplant cavier (18.50)

Salmon, rockets, and sour cream're classic combination, it works everytime. Eggplant cavier's both added creamy texture and sweeten the dish. The toast was also nicely charred. A little bit tasted of burnt toast added a layer to the dish.

Kozy Korean BBQ

2010-11-27T06:13:00.000-08:00

7 Wilmot St, Sydney

Kozy's hidden in a laneway between George St. and Pitt St., just opposite Event Cinema.

During weekdays, they have special deal, $8 set lunch, which come with 3 sides and 1 salad.

Mine's a vegetarian bibimbub. It tastes refreshing and decent for the price.

Zushi, Surry Hills

2010-11-26T05:34:00.000-08:00

285 Crown Street
Open: Everyday 12-3 p.m and 6-10 p.m.

I don't know what to eat. I was so hungry that I took off in Surry Hills instead of gotin g to Wa, a Japanese cafe, in Bondi Junction. I then walked from Tabou and couldn't decide what I did want to eat. I didn't want to eat bread today.

I was still thinking when I walked pass Zushi.

Japanese food'd be nice for a very warm day but... I still had hot green tea ($3), lol.

Sashimi+sushi set ($20) - Sashimi; kingfish, tuna, and salmon; were very fresh. Tempura batter was light and not oily. The set was fresh and tasty.

Coffee Alchemy

2010-11-26T04:48:00.000-08:00

Open: Tue-Sat 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.

In the middle of nowhere, there 's a coffee heaven.

I meant to come here since I first arrived in Sydney. 10 months past and I'm going back home in 2 weeks time, I just had a chance to visit Coffee Alchemy. 3 single origin on the machine and 6 single origin on pour over!!! I really should come here sooner T_T

My Bolivian espresso

It's truely a coffee bar with no food to distract me.

I can't figure out which beans should I try on pour over, too many choices. Plus, I'm not familiar with the first 4 estate names.

My El Salvador pour over - I think it tasted fruity, apricot, and walnut. Sadly, I didn't get the estate name since there were 2 s/o from El Salvador on offer.

Mayan Coffee & Xocolat

2010-11-26T03:45:00.000-08:00

Open: M-F 7 a.m. -3 p.m.

I walked to Glebe Point Road Festival as a diversion from my research paper. Then I saw Mayan Coffee stall. I was sure that I haven't tried Mayan coffee before but Mayan coffee's name rang a bell. It turned out that I tried their chocolate before but couldn't find where to buy it in Melbourne. After my first taste of Xocolat in Melbourne, I forgot about it until now.

I went there and asked for short black but the barista asked me whether I'd like afforgato instead. My brain ran at the rate of 1,000 miles per hour trying to figure out whether I would get a nice, cold afforgato to counter a warm sunny day or trying their beans. Surely enough, I can't resist the temptation to try their coffee beans. So, I sticked to my original plan. My short black was syrupy and slighly spicy with medium body and lingery finish.

The coffee was so good that I went back to the stall again after walked through the festival to try white coffee. Latte was slightly too hot but I LOVE the taste of it. It tasted just like toffee caramel with a hint of chocolate. I found out later that the beans I like is Peaberry Huehuetenango.

A week later, I was at their cafe in Dank Street, Waterloo enjoying Guatemalan coffee.

Adriano Zumbo, The Labs

2010-11-19T01:18:00.000-08:00

AZ's new cafe's a little shop at the corner of Terry Street, a few minute walk from Rozelle Market. Cookie Monster and bright red color theme make the shop looks lively, plus I can watch macarons making while having morning tea. Seats here're arranged in the bar style with high stools and counter facing the wall.

Selections of cakes here's quite limited not like the patissaries. They have the classic like brownie, tarts, pies, breads, macarons and short list of all day breakfast.

Raspberry and Pittachio tart

After having tea at the lab, I strolled to the patissarie...

Barbados tastes like 'savory sticky rice with mango' to me. I guess I drawn this conclusion from kaffie lime leave in the cake and something that remind me of sticky rice with dried fish in a market in Bangkok.

more...

and more...

My favorite of this set's 'Lukas rides the tube'. Sadly, it wasn't there when I went back for a second time.

The giant green macaron's interesting with classic combination of basil and raspberry. What I like's basic curd ^-^ I'm now looking forward to a new collection. Can't wait!

Tabou

2010-11-17T05:23:00.000-08:00

527 Crown Street, Surry Hills
Sydney
Chef: Alasdair Mckenna

Monica from Love My Foods & Sugar and I went to Tabou last night. A lovely waitor offered us to choose our own table. So, we seated at a table which should give us a good light (for pictures, ofcourse).

Tabou's menu

Baguette+salted butter

TERRINE MAISON Game terrine, foie gras mousse, orange marmalade, madeira jelly ($22) - It's a long time that I haven't eaten and tried to distinguish all ingredients in the dish. This terrine's one of those rare moment. I know only that it tastes good and straight forward. I love a slight bitterness of marmalade and sweetness of prune puree with my terrine.

TOURTE LAPIN ESCARGOTS Rabbit, Snail, Puff Pastry, Carrot Puree ($24) - Monica's entree is pretty to an eye.

STEAK TARTARE Classic steak tartare, sour dough toast and accompaniments ($30) - Steak Tartare can be ordered as either entree or main size and you can choose a mixed or unmixed steak tartare. As I wasn't trust myself, I ordered the mixed steak tartare. It was o.k. but I was disappointed since entrees tasted fantastic.

POULET Ballontine of Chicken, New Season Asparagus, Morilles, Girolles ($36) - Chicken was dried but was helped a bit by butterly sautee mushrooms and sauce. But chicken still dried.

We were so full but the meal won't complete without the dessert. At first, we agreed for just one dessert but ended up having two.

MILLEFEUILLE A LA MANGUE Mango Parfait, Feuilles de Brick, Fresh Mint ($13) - It technically mango cheesecake. It was quite rich.

CRÈME BRULÉE Vanilla creme brulée ($13) - I didn't think it is this big. Luckily, the dish's shallow if not I won't be able to finish it. Caramel's thin and has a great balance between sweetness and little bitterness which goes perfectly well with not so sweet brulee. I polished it off all by myself, minus Monica's 2 spoonfuls.

Mariage Fréres Tea

Overall, main course's a let down for me although I'll come back for entree and dessert.

District Dining

2010-11-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

I put District Dining in my 'to eat' list after reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being Hungry blog. I went there with B, my vegetarian+seafoods friend.

Freshly baked bread ($3) is served while we were making my mind... it is really hard choices. There're so many thing that I won't attempt to cook at home. I have to come back here again.
All dishes're meant to be shared. The section above the word District Dining's entree size while the lower section's main dish size with substantial portion.

Crispy quail eggs, Tarragon, Anchovy mayonnaise ($14) - Cute little quail eggs were served up in petite carton. The flavour's beautifully corporated from deep-fried soft boil eggs with running egg yoke, saltiness of white anchovy, richness of mayo, and a light touch of chevile.

School prawn w aioli (Today's special) - I can have the whole bowl on my own. Think about it as crispy prawn french fried.

Good Fortune Barramundi, Cappanata, Cous cous, Orange ($22)

Marlborough King Salmon, Miso, Radish salad, Eggplant ($20) - It looks like overcooked salmon but don't let its look deceived you. This's the star of the meal. Salmon's just pink inside. I guess that the it's confited before grilled the outside. It just melted. The sweet and tartness of pickle vegs balance fattiness of the fish.

This place's easily won my heart with good flavour, reasonable price, and charming service.

Cafe Rosamond - Pierre Roelofs

2010-11-15T03:30:00.000-08:00

Rear 191 Smith Street, Fitzroy
Every Thursday evening: 7-11 pm
I was so glad to hear that Pierre Roelofs has returned to offer 3-course desserts at Cafe Rosamond since I was blown away and still dreamed about his dessert courses at Monsieur Truffer last year. He offers 1, 2, or 3 courses for $20, $30, or $40, respectively plus a dessert tube for $9 a pop.

First...

Second...

Third...

Overall, it's a good experience but I feel that I love his desserts courses at Monsieur Truffle more.

De Clieu

2010-11-15T00:15:00.000-08:00

187 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy
Melbourne, Australia
Open: 7-5

LS told me that there is a new cafe in St.Ali empire opened in Gertrude St just a few week before my trip down to Melbourne. I kind of known where it is but not so sure. It took over the real estate agent place on a corner of Gertrude St.

Interesting foods menu... and foods is quite tasty

But what I'm after is... ofcourse, COFFEE ^-^ It's always a comfort to see the Synesso machine and some familiar faces from SevenSeeds.

A house blend latte with lush and creamy milk.

My french press Kenyan s/o.

Attica

2010-11-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

Rene's talkshow during SIFF 2010 inspires me to go to Attica. I like Ben Shewry's concept of cooking. Foods is everywhere, it is us that don't looking. LS and I went there on Wednesday evening and still can't decide whether we were going to do 5 or 8 courses degustation.

While comparing the 5 and 8 courses menu, we had some bread w cultured butter and seafoods mousse.

We went for 8 courses ($140) since it looks more tempting compared to the 5 courses one.

Appertizer is white asparagus with hezelnut mousse flavoured with lemon juice and some smoky indian spice which I can't figure out what it is, and chevile. The just cooked asparagus's still crunch yet sweet which complimented by lightly, earthy, citrusy mousse.

Snow crab - we were told that the chef is inspired by snowy mountain in New Zealand. So, he presents the dish this way. Under snow mountain, I dove into deep sea for salmon roe and crabmeat before went for coconut powder which melt in my mouth just like mashmellow. The dish is freshing up by grated fresh horseradish. Each mouthful tastes different depending on the quantity of each ingredients in one spoonful.

It set my mood and I really looked forward to the next course.

Succulent South Australian Marron with cute little sweet but crunchy wild onions, chorizo water, and leek. I really curious how to make chorizo water ?_?

This 's a showcase for potato, which beautifully cooked for 6 hours at about 100 degree. It's soft, silky, and velvet. Goat cheese, dried fish flake, black pepper, and crispy saltbush leaves are compliment the potato and bring out its full sweet earthy flavour.

While eating, I spotted Ben in the kitchen.

Snapper with shitake mushroom soup, wild onion flowers, sliced radhish, and red quinoa.

The fish is perfectly cooked. If it was taken out 30 seconds earlier, it would be undercooked. The soup is sweet and earthy liked Japanese clear soup (to me). Wild onion flowers and sliced radish lift the dish up. And I love crunchy red quinoa to give the dish more texture.

Detour to the ladies...

Pig tail with pickle onion puree, red melon, and Dune spinach. First thing came to my mind was the pork and brown sauce taste like Tonkatsu. LS also asked me what was the brown sauce. My first comment's tonkatsu sauce ^^ It is a full body sweet and sour sauce.

Beef with sea lectuce (combu), white cabbage, black sesame. I love this dish despite the fact that it was quite heavy-handed on salt. Ben gives a new life to inexpensive meat cut and vegetable. I didn't know that flank cut can be juicy and meaty, and most importantly not tough at all.

Terrior - This one, I can't eat with my eye since all I saw 's a heap of black with dashes of green. But it has nice herby aroma. The combination of this dish are refreshing and sour chewy dried berries, neutral tasted avocado jelly, lovely little heart-shape wild sorrel, and yohurt sorbet.

It tastes like Spring to me which I think quite funny because I started the meal by having snowy crab mountain aka Winter.

At this stage, I'm high on... I don't know it's because of sugar or because I'm so happy about the foods. Let just say I didn't drink a single drop of wine yet I feel like I was drunk.
The dessert's 'Apple, Olive, warm shredded wheat'. I'm positively that it's sliced Granny Smith since my first spoon was so sour that my eyes looked like this, >_<. Second spoon and after that were better since I found shredded celeries, apple mousse, and wheat crumbles. It's a balance of both textures and tastes. Sweet and sourness. Smooth, soft,and crunchy. And, I'm satisfied.

LS had a latte ($4) while I opted for tea ($5). LS was curious about coffee since she smelled coffee when she first came in. It's rarely that fine dining places have a wonderful aroma of coffee lingering in the air. They use Victoria coffee. The tea selections're far superior than coffee. They have Chinese white tea, Chinese red tea, Chinese green tea, Jasmine tea, Ginger and something, Oulong, Earl grey, and English breakfast.
Petit four's egg shaped caramel filled chocolate. The eggs resemble native bird egg. The waiter actually told me what bird it is but I can't remember. All I remember is the bird name started with a letter P and it has 3 syllables. My bad >_

I came to Attica with very high expectation. I returned home with satisfaction. I love Ben for his respect to beautiful local ingredients and his creativity to create fantastic dishes from ordinary ingredients.

Market lane coffee, 2, 3, 4...

2010-11-09T05:21:00.000-08:00

I just love this place. It is a cafe I come for pour over when I 'm in Melbourne and ofcourse to buy beans back to Sydney.

Pour over cup's so cute and very japanese... unasymetric cup with no handle.

A latte

Monk Bodhi Dharma

2010-11-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

I had a sore throat and totally lost my voice on my second day during my trip down to Melbourne. I supposed not to eat or drink heaty stuffs like nuts, bread, wine, coffee, etc. But how can I skip coffee when I was in Melbourne. My solution was drink less coffee, no alcohol, and plenty of water. My first stop is MBD. It took a good 5 minutes to find the place 'cos I missed the little sign.

The cafe is small and cosy with lots of lights.

While waiting for coffee, I noticed that baristas here use Aesop soap.

I was blown away by PN's hot Chocolate. Latte art's so sharp and shiny. I started to regret that I didn't order latte.

My Kenyan espresso was very smooth and orangy.

After coffee, PN and I asked the barista how to go to Phraran Market. Mr Barista then knew that we were heading to Marketlane and graciously directed us there.

Aria - Let's do lunch, SIFF 2010

2010-10-13T23:01:00.000-07:00

Going or not going... I debated with myself until the day before today. I'm very very busy this week. But... everyone has to eat, right? So, I finally went to Aria for Let's do lunch, which's part of Crave Sydney International Food Festival.

Complimentary Amuse Bouche - Gazpacho It's just perfect for very warm Spring day.

Sourdough bread & butter

Let's do lunch main course's roasted fillet of Wild River barramundi with crab and pea risotto ($35) including a glass of wine/beer/sparking mineral water and coffee/tea.

I ordered Green bean and pear salad w walnuts and Roquefort ($15) as a side dish;

Barra skin's crispy and the flesh's so succulent. Pea shoot's a compliment to pea risotto.

Bean and pear salad's refreshing. It has crunchiness from bean, sweetness and a faint spiciness from poached pear, buttery crutons, nutty and round from blue cheese. I just love this dish. BUT it's too strong for the main course, my fault. So, I had risotto first and followed by side dish, lol. It's really good, I really want to replica this dish.

Time for dessert. It's really hard to decide. Since I was quite full and it was a very warm day. I cut Valrhona Chocolate and Tart out. So, there 're only 3 choices left; Mango, Apple, or Pineapple. I then asked for recommendation. The answer was 'they 're all very good'. Not helping, T_T !

While waiting for dessert, I had short black - very round and smooth, just nice acidity and little bit peppery. Perfectly clearing my palete.

I finally settled for Mango since mango season just starts. It's mango pavlova w passionfruit, saffron cream, and lime and basil sorbet.

First thing that hit me's the dessert smells so good!!! I madly took about 20 pictures just about this dessert while quickly and delicatedly tasted it. Timing's the issue since lime&basil sorbet and saffron cream 'll finally melt if I'm too slow. The dessert tasted very refreshing, sweet, and savory to me. I think the savory part comes from saffron and baby basil.

I'm so falling in love with the chef who creates this beautiful dessert. I'm now thinking about who should I drag to Aria with me to do 2-course desserts; one's fruit based and the other one must be Valrhona chocolate.

Longrain

2010-10-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

It took me almost 2 years to come to Longrain. I don't want to come here alone since I don't want to order only 1 dish. I finally came here with my two Thai friends. We chose 1 dish each but it turned out that they're all sweet. Thanks to lovely waiter for informing us. If not, we may come to the conclusion that foods here're sweet >_< We ended up order 1 more dish since no one wanted to give up the choice. The waiter offers to order small side for us. Luckily, he did 'cos we were very full at the end of the meal that we didn't have room for desserts.

Do I need to say more? I think pictures say it all...

Eggnet filled w pork, prawn, peanut, beansprouts & sweet vinegar

Lamb Massamun curry

beef rib - my favorite!

Caramalized pork hock w five spices and chili vinegar

Damages

I kept in my mind when I came here that I wasn't come to eat Thai foods since it'll create bias if the foods isn't authentic. Do I like it? Very much. I'm no longer care whether it's authentic or modern as long as foods tastes great. I like it enough to recommend my friends when they ask where they should go for Thai foods.

Rene Redzepi @Sydney Opera House

2010-10-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

It was just about half an hour after sunset. I rushed to Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall and seated just a few minutes before the show started. It's a splendid way to begin Sydney International Food Festival by attending Rene Redzepi's talkshow. He's a head chef and co-partner of Noma, no. 1 on the world's 50 best restaurants this year.

The show's all about his concept toward foods. What, where, when, why, and how he and his team created Noma. He started by defining of Nordic cuisine, foods you can find only in Nordic countries. He then continues to tell the audiences the journey of Noma. How to find the produces when everyone says Nordic foods' all about cabbage, onion, and herrings. He started to read everything he can in search for produces and found out that foods' everywhere... we are just not looking.

Ben Shewry from Attica, Mark Best from Marque, and Terry Durack were guests to this talkshow. Ben brough some editable plants to show and make a point that foods' everywhere. They then discussed what Australian cuisine is. Should chefs use Rene's approach by using only locally or native produces? Or, should each chef find his own way to define Australian cuisine?

On a way out, there were vegs and some leaves to take home. I was amazed by baby purple snow pea. I managed to make a warm prawn salad with these vegs :D

For me, my definition of cuisine's only bad cuisine and good cuisine. Good cuisine doesn't mean that a chef must use expensive ingredients to make the dish. It's more about how to bring the most flavour out of the ingredients and harmonize them as a dish. What does 'cuisine' mean to you?

Foods for though: there 're two things which Rene said and I think they're useful.
- First you'll be redicule, then learn from y'r mistake, and finally you'll success
- It's not hurting you to plant a seed. Just plant the seeds and let's see what it 'll grow. Just try.

The art of making perfect macarons - Adriano Zumbo@Midcity

2010-10-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

First of all, I have to thank Mid City for arranging this event, which I was fortunate to be one of the lucky twelve to learn the art of making the perfect macarons with Adriano Zumbo. The event was held on 30th Sep in the kitchen of Cafe Dante in Mid City.

After taking pictures, we were down to business of piping and whishing. AZ broke us into 3 groups, 4 persons each. AZ took 2 groups while the other groupe was with Rhine, his sous chef. Ja and I were with Rhine.

We started from making filling; Orange Jelly&Carrot Buttercream, tonga bean and chocolate ganache, Venezuela chocolate&passion fruite ganache.

Boiled OJ until it reached blood temperature before adding setting agent and sugar. Take OJ mixture off the heat when the temperature reach 121C

Leave OJ to setting

While waiting for OJ to cool down before taking them out, we turned to make italian meringue. It's very glossy. I know now why I never success at making meringue.

Almondmeal+icing sugar with gold powder.

Mix meringue into almondmeal mixture and egg white.

Fold meringue into the mixture until well combined.

It was down to piping business. First, demonstration by Rhine.

Leave to dry before baking

Turned to make carrot buttercream

Carefully took shells out.

Put things together.

Some sweets while making macarons; Rock the Cradle, Cloudy Storm, and Houdini (from left to right). They are coffee cheesecakes w coffee jelly, blueberry tarts w meringue, and basil curd, strawberry, and raspberry macarons, respectively.

I'm fasinated w gold macaron. Very, very pretty

Pic of Rhine and me

Pic of Adriano and me with some sweets to take home :D

Last but not least, A big Thank You to both Adriano and Rhine for being patient and gave me some tips on how to make perfect macarons. I know I wasn't a good student. I just ran around taking pictures and tried to make macarons at the same time.
I think the most important tips I learnt from Rhine is 'practice, practice, practice', while AZ's tip is 'keep baking'. After a though, yes, I agree that practice makes perfect, which can apply with everything in my lift not just baking.

Le Monde

2010-09-27T04:21:00.000-07:00

83 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills
Tel (02)9211 3568

I wish I found Le Monde long before. My time here's almost up but I plan to come here as much as I could. I rearranged my top 5 coffee bars in no time and it becomes my most favorite coffee bar in Sydney.

Ja and I went there for breky degustation ($35) on Friday morning at 9 a.m. (They do 2 hrs slot for degustation starting at 9) The degustation's 3 courses meal and 2 coffee in between.
What I always do's checking coffee board. There're Sumatra Lintong, Rwanda, Kenya Mtaro, and Ethiopian Nekisse on clover and Kenya's also on Synesso. Ah! that'd be fun ^-^

Our first course's Granola&Watermelon w Black olive, frozen grape, vanilla bean yoghurt & baby mint. Having foods here's fun, especially I can play w foods. Try bits and pieces, then eat it as a dish.

Our clover coffee came in Chemex karafe, which's another brand of coffee filter. Surely enough, we were served Sumatra. Expected since it's the only one which can link well with second course. It tastes earthy, green capsicum, and tomato.

The second course was BLAT, apparently not traditional one :D There're tomato, egg yoke, 6hrs slow cook pork belly, kales, and avocado. Very pretty, it drew a lot of oh! and ah! from me, lol. But... how to tackle it?!? Luckily, got a hint from the chef.

I decided to eat it open-sandwich style. The tricky part was to lift up egg yoke and cut it in half on one toast before transfering half egg york to other toast. Trust me, it worths the effort.

Ja's second coffee, house blend latte. For me, I was thinking about having Mtaro since it's on the machine. I asked a lovely waitress how to best have it. I was thinking about long black but not sure. The barista then recommend 3 quaters long black. Wow! he means business :D (FH told me to book degustation when she comes next month after she heard 3/4 long black). I had Rwanda on clover in the end since I just found out I can have coffee from clover machine as well. Cool! I haven't had Rwanda this year.

The tasting note of Rwanda from the barista's big and bold like Barossa Shiraz. Interesting tasting note :D Yeah! it's really big and bold, with low acidity, caramel, and pineapple. It's more like a dark, tall, and handsome Prince..., I mean coffee. A perfect coffee for a lazy day.

The third course was iced coffee w fresh blueberries, salted pumkin seeds and chocolate. It was served in siphon glass. It wasn't really a dessert since I found it was more on a savory side, maybe because of salted pumkin seeds. Iced coffee was more like coffee cream which topped with chocolate fine flake. What I love about this dish's the texture and how the chef played with flavours.

The Source Espresso

2010-09-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

Shop 6/914 Military Road, Mosman
(entrance on Raglan Street)

I'm obsessed with coffee lately since I just realized I have only 3 months here before going home. So, I'm determined to have only great coffee. Since bad coffee and good coffee're about the same price.

I came across The Source Espresso's name in Deadman Espresso twitter and began to search for more information. I really wanted to go there after reading about it.

I went there with Ja one fine Saturday morning and it took us about half hour to go there by bus and another 15 minutes walk.

There were 3 s/o on clover. I was happy with my Kenya Kirinyaga Karimikui, which I'm still not sure whether it tastes like apricot, passionfruits, pineapple, or all three together. One thing I'm sure is it is too good to have with foods. So, I sat back, relaxed, and enjoyed my coffee.

After a while, Ja proclaimed that her skim cap tasted different. Ha?? how?? So, I tried her coffee and found that Ja's coffee was quite orangy and chocolaty liked good chocolate ganache cake with candied orange and a bit of black pepper... yumm... The tasting profile's very Nekisse liked. Truthfully, I didn't know for sure what coffee they used for Ja's coffee since I didn't specific when ordering. If I believe my tastebuds, I'd say it's Nekisse.

Ja and I shared roasted beef sandwich and the waiter was so kind to cut and put them in individual plates for us :D

I couldn't resist to have 2nd cup, double ristrestto Nekisse. Look how beautiful it is ^_^

Dancing Goats

2010-09-11T02:16:00.000-07:00

Shop 4, 280 King Street, Melbourne
M-F: 7am-4pm

It was quite a challenge to find this place since the address and the actual shop's not located on the same street. The shop's at Lt.Lonsdale st. not far from the corner of Lt.Lonsdale st and King st. I first heard about this place from FH not long after Jesse Hyde (picture below) won Victorian Barista of the Year Championships in 2009. And, I fell in love with coffee here ever since.
Its's one of my favorite coffee places in Melbourne. It's a place that I was willing to walk for 25 minutes from my place for great coffee and muffins. The truth's I can't resist to order muffin here since the first day I came here. Muffins're so soft and moist inside with the crispy crust.
Dancing Goat has both house blends and single origin coffee.
When I came back to Melbourne for a visit since I moved to Sydney, I had to come back here for breky. This time I came with Ja and we had a table next to coffee machine. Ja was busy taking pictures as usual. I guess Jesse noticed that since he made another 2 flat white for us 'just for taking picture'. Thank you, Jesse!
We understood why he said 'just for taking picture' after we took a sip. They were very weak coffee since these coffee were meant for taking picture not for drinking, silly us.

Bentley

2010-09-08T04:50:00.000-07:00

320 Crown Steet, Surry Hills
Bentley's a bit gloomy from the outside. I walked pass it twice before realizing that is the place Ja and I were going to have lunch ^^
Inside 's bright and light.
We decided to do tapas lunch menu.
Sourdough's light and fluffy. Olive oil's mossy and a little peppery.
First course's Kingfish Ceviche w pickled diakon & yuzu mayonnaise. It's very refreshing. The dressing reminds me of Thai salad dressing which has loads of onion.
Ceviche came with Jamon Serrano. Jamon ham's of good quality. A bit salty, fatty, but not oily.
Smoked eel parfait with white soy, kombu & seaweed. The smokiness was first hit me when I cut the parfait in half. This's the beautiful combination of textures. The gelatine-like sheet was crisp when taking a bite before melting once in my mouth, which rounded up the eel, kombu, and seaweed. The taste of the dish was lifted up by wasabi powder.
Parmesan custard w truffled asparagus has a smell of truffle but not overpower the dish. Asparagus's what puzzled me. It tasted a bit weird for asparagus. Overall, this's not a bad dish but I'm not a fan.
Soft-shell crab w green chili salsa was next. Salsa tastes like Thai seafoods sauce to me. Crab was warm, sweet, juicy, and a little bit salty, which was well balance by tangy salsa.
Poached egg w chickpeas, preserved lemon, and harissa: this 's one of my favorite dish here. Poached egg was so perfect. I can imagin the oozing egg yoke before I cut an egg.
The egg yoke was filmy cover crispy chickpeas, which I guess fried with preserved lemon and some herbs. The richness of poached egg's well balanced with the sweetness of harissa.
Black sausage w prawn and mandarin's another one of my favorite. Sausage was cut in cube and lightly fried to create a crust on the outside. The inside was so soft. A bit of sausage, almond, mandarin, prawn, and mandarin relish formed a perfect bite for this dish. It had texture, balance between sweetness and bitterness (the relish).
Chocolate ganache w orange oil, a very nice dessert. Ganache was so light, quite cold, and smooth. It was sweet but not too sweet. Salt and pepper created an interesting platform for the taste with a little help of cardamom and orange zest. A gallant finished for lunch.

I now began to understand why Bentley has 2 chefs hat. Generally, each tapa tastes good on its own and make me want some more. As a menu, each dish is well linked to the next dish and build up the menu as a whole.

Plan B

2010-09-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

204 Clarence St, CBD
M-F: 8am-4pm

I went to Plan B just 5 minutes before noon since I was afraid that I won't have a seat. Plan B's a very small hole in a wall place which has only 6 seats on the footpath. It's famous for Wagyu beef burger.A juicy, yummy, succulent beef burger; which comes with toasted brioche, cheddar cheese, pickled beetroots, and a bit of salad leaves, 's offered for just $10.
I couldn't bite it. So, I deconstructed it.
By wagyu burger standard, it 's a normal wagyu burger. But Plan B's burger's still one of the best burger around considering the price and quality. The downside's I had to wait for the good 20 minutes before the burger finally arrived.

Klink handmade espresso

2010-09-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

281 Clarence St, CBD
M-F: 7am-3pm

‘I came here because my friend told me that coffee here‘s great’. That‘s what I overheard when I was drinking my piccolo at Klink. I smiled to myself… that‘s the same reason why I was here. My first feeling when I walked into the café was… the place looks very Melbournian…. and very serious on coffee.

When my piccolo arrived, my eyes just get a bit rounder when I saw good color and felt coffee temperature. Very promising :D The coffee (Cobra Gold) itself ‘s quite sweet and mild body.

After I satisfied with piccolo, it was time for the truth. I asked for short mac. It was served with a small jar of steamed milk. The only other place I know they serve short mac this way‘s Dancing Goats in Melbourne.

Ok, time to go. So, I went to pay for coffee and couldn’t resist to ask what‘s in the second grinder since I ‘ve got a feeling that it shouldn’t be decaf in that grinder but should be single origin. And, surely enough, it ‘s single origin on the machine. Sigh…why I didn’t ask before that… I already had 2 coffee now. But… but… but there‘s no harm to ask what coffee‘s on the machine. Then... I had the 3rd coffee, sigh...

The story doesn’t finish when I left the café. Sure enough, I called LS to tell her what I‘ve found; new café with decent coffee and serious barista at last. Her last words to me for that conversation was ‘ok, I‘ll leave you alone to bouncing around’.

Nakashima

2010-08-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

7 Cambridge St, The Rocks
Tel 9241 1364

There 's a downside for browsing food blogs at 3 in the morning. It made me really want to follow bloggers to places they visited. And here I was, wandering up the Mission Stairs...
Turn right, left, and right... to Cambridge Street
Ah... there it 's... Nakashima!
Very empty when I arrived.... and people kept coming and it was full house when I finished my meal.
My today lunch was Tempura lunch set ($17) and Ice Oulong tea ($3.5)
Salmon shashimi was fresh and nice but can I just say kappa maki was yumm.. Sushi rice was soft and sticky which contrasted with the crunchiness of fresh cucumber. Springroll was crunchy on the outside, warm and juicy on the inside.. just nice.
There were 2 prawns, 1 aubergine, and 1 pumkin tempura. Aubergine was warm, soft, and melt in my mouth (recommended to eat first since the temperature affects the taste of aubergine). Prawn tempura also good, the sweetness of prawn were logged inside tempura batter and just brust out in my month when I took a bite. Pumkin... pumkin 's pumkin, sweet :D
Almost forgot the soup! It was quite watery BUT it 's good that it was watery since it was not outshown the set lunch. It actually just a nice compliment for the meal.

Blancharu

2010-08-14T03:37:00.000-07:00

2 years anniversary 6 courses degustations at
My first course starts with 2 very fresh Pacific Oysters served with Tosazu jelly. Jelly 's very refreshing which compliment the freshness of oysters. Australian Black Truffle with ‘sunny side up’ egg. The serving size 's very generous with plenty of truffle. Truffle aroma 's all over the place which made me think that the degustation 's very cheap since I had to pay extra $60 for truffle in another degustation in Melbourne. Egg white 's a bit dry but for the price, it 's very awesome.The Foie Gras “Chawanmushi” with dashi broth 's the highlight of the meal. I quietly delicately ate it. The richness of foie gras went well with steamed egg. The broth with a faint aroma of lime help cutting through the richness and made this dish memorable.I was a bit full after the chawanmushi. The Poisson Du Jour - Blue traveller with fennel and fennel puree - 's ordinary. Though I like the prawn gravy in the dish. Lamb Ragout, Parsnip mash, ‘hatcho miso’ sauce - and zuchiniChocolate Fondant, Vanilla ice cream - and strawberry salad.
Overall, I 'm very happy with the degustation. All dishes 're very aromatic. The serving size 's too generous, not that I 'm complaining :P

Market Lane Coffee

2010-07-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Shop 13 Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road, South Yarra
Monday closed

This's one of the coolest place to hang around on weekends with friends, especially the ones who love coffee.
There're many coffee and different methods of brewing coffee to play with. Pour over, clover, or normal espresso machine. To simplify things, they wrote down the tasting note of all 4 single origin coffee using clover and pour over on the board. Plus there are 2 coffee for espresson machine; single origin and seasonal house blends When I occupied the table, LS went to find out what's the single origin on the machine since we're fans of espresso. She came back and said 'we're going to do a coffee flight'. What???
Basically, for coffee flight ($12), we can choose 3 single origin to pour over. They come with the tasting note. Ah.... what's a better way to play than doing a blind tasting. Since Ja and I haven't read a tasting note yet.
But while we were waiting for the flight, I noticed that Toshi (Toshiyuki Ishiwata) was steaming milk. So, I quickly queued up to order latte. Happy with the art work ^^

Tempura Hajime

2010-07-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

60 Park Street
Tel (03) 9696 0051

'I though it was closed' and then LS pouted at me after knowing that I was going to Tempura Hajime without her. In the end, we; Beansprout, LS, and I; went there together
I received an sms from Tempura Hajime on the dining day telling me how to get there. Since the entrance isn't the main door of 60 Park Street. But it's a dark wooden door on the right hand side. Right after we steped into that door, it seems like we went into someone house. Maybe because of the tiny size of the restaurant with only 12 seats surrounding tempura bar.
A basket of cute sake cups - choose what you like to accompany warm sake ($34 for 300 ml)
There are 2 menu: Beansporut chose tempura menu ($75) while LS and I chose tempura+sushi menu ($85)
Poached chicken and cucumber salad and Sashimi 're served as appetizer. I love ume shiso kingfish. I 'm shiso fan. Anything with shiso 's almost always good, I think. The sashimi 's fresh and perfect. I quite like the miso dressing for salad.
Tempura sauce 's tempting, very aromatic and inviting me to drink it all. There are 3 ways to eat tempura; with grated daiko and tempura sauce, with lemon and salt (they use Murray river salt); or with nothing. The chef told us which tempura should eat which way.
Sweet corn - with salt and lemon. Sweet corn 's up to its name with the sweetness of fresh corn, which made us wonder where it came from since it's in mid winter rightnow in Victoria.
Fresh water eel - with salt and lemon. Very juicy and succulent.
Prawn - with tempura sauce. Fresh and juicy.
Crisp and refreshing salad of cabbage, tomato, cucumber, and wakame with ponzu dressing
Scallop stuffed with sea urchin rolled in shiso leaf. At this moment, we stop talking to one another and concentrating on tasting.
Prawn ball with mushroom. This's the star of the night. It's a perfect combination plus the ball 's so full of flavour.
Hapuka fish - with tempura sauce. After the prawn ball. This dish 's a little bit pale though still good.
Sushi plate - Tuna, Salmon, seared kingfish, seared salmon, seared wagyu beef, tamago, and rice ball. It's a perfect way to end the meal. Raw fish 're cut perfectly and served in the right temperature. Seared fish 's actually blow torch just in front of me. It 's partially cooked. I 'm a bit disappoited with rice ball and tamago. Though marking the restaurant name on tamago 's a nice touch.
Yoghurt pannacotta with muscat.Is it good? Absolutely, tempura 's fabulous and not oily at all. Besides, the sequnce of foods there 're fantastic. The taste 's slowly built up and I feel satisfy after the meal.

Gewurzhaus

2010-07-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

I feel like I became a 6 years old child walking into a candy shop when I walked into this shop.
It 's a very cool spice shop with loads of dried herbs and spices that I didn't know.
What really got me 's salt. Many different varieties of salt; both flavour salt andto single origin salt... Merlot salt, Truffle salt, Murray river salt, Fler de Salt, Black lava salt (which 's my currently favorite. It has a subtle sweetness).
Best of all, they allow me to try before buying. Minimum buying weight for spice 's 10g, for salt 's 20g.

Thanh Ha

2010-07-09T15:02:00.001-07:00

172 Victoria St, Richmond
(03) 9429 8130

This 's one of the places I regret I haven't been there before I moved to Sydney. I 'm not a Vietnamese foods fan but as FH recommended me this place. I had to give it a go.
I went there with FH, my foodie guide, and Beansprout. As I said, I 'm not a Vietnamese food fan. I have no idea what this dish called but it was so...o good. The noodle's thin and slippery. The filling's minced meat and chopped vegies. My most favorite in this dish 's deep fried taro though Vietnamese pork sausage isn't bad.
The pancake 's fantastic. There 're two textures for batter. The outer part 's crispy while the part that covers filling 's thick. The filling 's a combination of mungbeans, beansprout, minced meats, etc. I confess that I didn't concentrate much in detail. The only thing I know 's it 's so good but the serving size 's too generous and 3 of us couldn't finish it.
As it turned out Beansprout and I agreed that foods here 's much better than Vietnamese foods we had back home. And, this place 's definitely a cheap eat. We 're all so full with the damages of less than $7 each.

KL Bunga Raya

2010-07-09T14:43:00.000-07:00

34 Errol St, North Melbourne
(03) 9329 1762

KL's the short name of Kuala Lumper. Bunga Raya 's a name of the Malaysian national flower.
That night, I had Hor Mee ($10.50), which 's noodles in shrimp broth served with boiled egg, vegies, shrimps, and fish cake slides. The broth 's full flavour but not too fishy. I quite like the dish. I think it's simple yet neatly cooked.

Azuma

2010-06-23T02:15:00.000-07:00

1/2 Chifley Square, Sydney
Tel: (02) 9222 9960

Beansprout is dying to have lunch here for months but she's always busy working. She told me 2 weeks in advance that she 'll take a day off today and 'd love to have lunch at Azuma. So, we went there although rain was pouring down since morning.

We both had 'Azuma Bento' ($40) since we wanted to try bits and pieces of everything.

Sushi of grilled Tuna, Kingfish, and Salmon. Slightly salty but perfectly cut through the fattiness of fish.
My first bite's... chargrilled beef 'd going well with sticky rice... But when I had it again with pumkin (hiding under beef), the sweetness of pumkin marriaged well with beef.
Tuna and salmon shashimi. What I like 's wasabi. I guess that it's a fresh wasabi because it's not only numbing my head but it has sweetness to go with the numbing.

Deep fried prawn, cure fish, a piece of soft-shell crab, porkball, pickels...
Prawn tempura and sweet potato tempura. The batter 's slighly too thick and oily to my liking.

Overall, service 's fabulous, the quality of foods justifies the price, and Beansprout and Nutmeg 're happily full.

La Banette

2010-06-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

On my way back from Sunday breky in Glebe, I walked pass this new bakery and decided to cross a road to have a close look.

Crab curry v Grilled Scampi w garlic

2010-06-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

I went to Fish Market w the idea that I was going to buy vongole and fish. But I bought blue swimmer and scampi instead, lol.
I used Gary Mehigan's Chili Crab recipe but I don't know where to find fermented coconut milk. So, I used coconut milk instead. That's why my dish became 'Crab curry' not Chili Crab! I started with the base for my curry. I blended 3 chili, half onion, a knob of ginger, and 3 cloves of garlic together.
Fried the herbs mix w a knob of shrimp paste.
Stired in 3 tomatoes, chopped. I cooked until it started to break before adding coconut milk (small can). At this point, I started prepping a crab.
Just before turning off the gas, I stired in lightly beaten egg in.
I fell in love with scampi, they 're so cute with brightly orange color.
I simply stired fried them w garlic and topped with pasley butter. It surprisingly went well w rice.

Stir-fried aubergine w homemade chili sauce, corinda and spring onion

2010-06-12T03:14:00.000-07:00

Watching Masterchef inspired me to cook a new dish. I watched the Masterclass episode yesterday which Kylie Kwong shown how to cook Stir-Fried Eggplant w Homemade Chili sauce. It looked so good that I wanted to give it a try though I was too lazy to look up Masterchef website for exact amount of ingredients :D
I went to Eveleign market to buy lovely aubergine from Everleigh Farmers' Market along w other groceries. After preping an aubergine by cut it in small triangle shape and salted it for at least 30 minutes to draw moisture and bitterness out, I cleaned salt out and patted them dry.
My next step was to make chili sauce. I chopped 2 parts chili (a long red chili), 1 part ginger, and 1 part garlic before fried it and seasoned w Chinese soy sauce. After that, it was time to roughly chop corindas and spring onions, I reckon 1-2 handfuls each.
Fried aubergine until lighly golden before stired in chili sauce, corinda, and spring onion in.
Stir-fried and seasoned with soy sauce before turned the gas off.

Adriano Zumbo - Winter 2010

2010-05-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

I'm always excited when I 'm queuing at this patisserie. I want to know what macaroons they have for the day. I love the fact that cakes are changed seasonally. I also love the fact that he seems to be able to spin every ingredient into desserts.
Everyone seems spending queuing time to think of what he/she wants. But in the end I heard a lot of 'may i have one of each (macaroon) flavours?' and 'which one 's y'r favorite?' What 's my favorite? Hmm.... it's a 10,000 dollar question. Truthfully, I don't know... I haven't try them all.So far, I love pear+fennel, licorice, rose+pitachio, mandarin, and ferrero macaroons. Chickpea flavour's also interesting... a bit smoky and smelled of thymes. Ginger cake (the one on the far right)'s so far my favorite cake of this season. I think it 's clever cake 'cos it 's a marriage of ginger and chocolate binding with coconut and passionfruit. It's light but flavourful.
It seems I come here not often enough... there 're many cakes I still want to try.

Gumshara

2010-04-23T01:32:00.000-07:00

Eating World Harbour Plaza
Shop 209, 25-29 Dixon St, Haymarket
(enter from Goulburn St or Factory St)
Tue-Sun: 10am-10pm

I read about Gumshara from Grabyourfork last night and think it 'll be a perfect comfort food for me. So I went there today after googling its location.
Finding a new place to eat is the best way for me to explore a new city. I didn't know where Dixon street, Haymarket eventhough I dined several time at Superbowl, silly me. I think it 's run in a family. My sister goes further as she always give directions using cafes/restaurants/supermarkets as markers. There 're only 8 dishes to choose; 6 noodles and 2 rices, but it s quite hard to choose what to eat since it 's all look equally good. I finally went for pork spare rib ramen ($14.50) since they have only 10 serves a day with extra egg ($1.50) .
There is a disclaimer posted on the counter that they welcome customers to tell whether soup is too salty or too thick and they 'll be more than happy to fix it. They also told me when I get my bowl.
First thing I did 's ofcourse taking picture, lol. After that, I took a sip of pork soup. It 's actually not salty but savoury sweet with bone marrow and pork fat. The rib 's cracking and tender. When biting in to the piece, sweet pork fat just seeping out and cut through the saltiness of the rib. The rib 's very well suit their noodles and soup. My only complaint 's they 're too generous and serve too big a portion for me :D
I texted my friend on the way back home asking her whether tonkutsu ramen can kill me' while thinking when I can come back here again.

Le Triskel's new member

2010-04-13T04:22:00.000-07:00

Congratulation 's in order to Michael and Patricia for their baby boy, Remi!
Thanks to JJ for taking the picture of this note, which posted at Le Triskel's, for me.

Wase Japanese Dining

2010-04-11T03:39:00.000-07:00

359 Darling St, Balmain
(02) 8065 1875
Just across the road from my favorite macaroon shop, there 's a Japanese restaurant that I wanted to try for quite sometime. I finally went there during the Easter weekends after did some shopping at Rozelle Market.Zaru Soba was instantly caught my attention. A perfect dish for such a warm day. So, I order no.14.
Cute kimonos inside the restaurant.
I quite enjoyed this set lunch. Tempura was freshly made and there 're a variety of selection; prawns (ofcourse), eggplant, beans, pumkin, taro, and brocoli. The tempura went well with zuru soba. And, kappa maki were crisp and crunchy.
Complimentary fruits

The Fair Trade Coffee Company

2010-03-05T02:02:00.000-08:00

My mom and I planned to go to second-handed shop in Glebe Point Road. On the way there, we had brunch at Fair Trade Coffee Company.

We took a seat next to a window.

I read newspaper while waiting for breakfast. The front page 's about Thai's former Prime Minister case.

The french toast & cinnamon creme maple syrub... yummy...

Adriano Zumbo

2010-02-20T01:38:00.001-08:00

I first heard about Mr Zumbo in the TV show called Masterchef (Australia) last year and was drooling over his desserts. Adriano Zumbo's shop 's on my to do list when I 'm in Sydney. The first chance to visit his shop 's when FH wanted to pick up her birthday cake from there.
Weeks later, I went there again with my mom and Ja, another food lover, for desserts after having breakfast from True Religion Espresso Bar. We couldn't decide what we like most, so we settled for 2 dishes; the Younger Years (pics on y'r left) and ricotta pancake (upper right).
The Younger Years 's chocolate fondant w peanut butter gelato and crushed peanut caramel. There 's raspberry coulis and vanilla anglaise in a syringe :D Very funky, isn't it?
I 'm quite like pancake despite the fact that I was too full to finish it. I love the complimention of the saltiness of ricotta (in pancake) which cut through the sweet and sour of berries compote.
Before heading back home, I went to the Patisserie to buy macaroons back home. I put macaroons in a tupperware I brough to help keeping them in shape :D. Pretty macaroons I bought this time 's in white (vanilla), black (sesame), violet (mixed berries), yellow (banana), and red (raspberry, I think?).

Assiette

2010-02-12T01:22:00.001-08:00

48 Albion Street
Surry Hills, Sydney
(02) 9212 7979
Opening Time: Fri 12-3pm, Tue-Sat: 6-10pm I booked my mom to Assiette for a Friday lunch when she visited me in Sydney this month.
The lunch menu offers 2 dishes for entree, main, and dessert. So, we decided to try everything...
Sourdough bread, something to chew while waiting... crunchy on the outside, soft in the inside...yum...
Cured salmon w beetroot duxelle and herb sour cream
Heirloom tomato tart fine with olives, goats cheese and rocket
Roast pork belly w sauteed cabbage, apple sauce and garlic potatoes
Mushroom&asparagus risotto w truffle and trompette chantilly
Vanilla pannacotta w poached peach
Tropical fruit soup w mango sorbet

Are they good as they looked? Yes, they 're... judging from my mom wants to go back there again next Friday :D

Achacha

2010-02-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Try this, Ja told me. Hmm...? How to peel it?, I asked. Just crack it open, use y'r nail.... she said.

This could be interesting... I haven't seen it before... From it apperance, it looks like 'plum mango' or 'marian mango' socalled 'Ma Prang' in Thai. But it has a thick skin just like mangosteen. However, when cracked it open, the flesh's white while plum mango 's orange.

I was told it tastes like mangosteen.... yes, the texture 's very similar but I think it tastes more like langsat, another South-East Asia's fruit, with slightly acidic yet sweet tasted. Yes, the taste suits its name "Achacha", which means 'honey kiss'.

2042

2010-01-29T22:46:00.001-08:00

403-405 King Street, Newtown

Sydney, NSW

Ja's Beansprout suggested that we should try 2042, a new cafe that she said it has good reviews. So, we went to 2042, a cafe named after a suburb it 's in, Newtown.

It 's a relaxing and child-friendly cafe with a small table for children to hold their own party :D It serves breakfast till 4 p.m. I was eyeing corn fritter which Ja 's ok to share it w me. The dish 's balance the saltiness of bacons with sweetness of green tomato relish ($12.90).

At first, I quite reluctant to order coffee since I 'm very fussy with coffee. But...I had hope when my latte arrived. It had a right color and texture. The temperature was also perfect. I 'm happy to come back here for a coffee, it 's decent chocolatty latte. ($3.50)

Ja's skimmed milk cappuchino. ($3.50)

Lemon Tarts

2010-01-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

I love to make tarts with citrus fruits... lemon, lime, orange, passion fruits... whatever 's at hand or in season. I love when aroma of citrus oil 's lingering in the air while cooking the filling or grating zests. I can't exactly remember when I made my first lemon tart but I think it 's about 5 or 6 years ago when I bought LCB cookbook. It 's a simple and straighforward recipe which yield a good result. Though I remember that when I poured the filling into the tart shell before baking. The filling was leaking all over!

Last week, I had a new dessert book writen by Pierre Herme. All the recipes 're looking good but very intimidating since they 're very long recipes. The shortest one 's only 2 pages. So, I settle with the lemon tart recipe which I first saw that it 's only 2 pages recipe.

Apparently, the two pages I saw 's only the baking part. There 're another 4 pages for tart and filling recipes... and I realized that when I finished the tart part. The tart dough 's very moist and crumbly more like cookies dough than tart dough. It has lots of butter. I already decreased butter amount from the recipe by 20% but I still used about extra 25% of butter than I normally use. But I still had to roll it between 2 plastic wraps before flipped it into the tart pan.

The filling 's a lemon curd with butter. This 's the first time that I made the curd and I love this recipe... it 's very aromatic curd, lots of lemon zests. It 's very logical to use lots of zests since I used the same amount of lemons for both zests and juice. And, I don't want to waste zests since lemon 's very expensive in Bangkok. It 's around 25 Baht per lemon while lime 's only 5 Baht each (Au Tor Kor Market). The curd's very well balance flavour and butter 's added silkiness to the curd.

I 'm now in love with both LCB and Herme's recipes. So, I 'm now use both recipes; LCB's for big tart and Herme's for individual tart since both recipes have their own advantages. The LCB recipe 's much easier to make plus the dough 's easier to handle when making in a big tart pan. Though it requires more chilling time. The tart flavour will be fully developed after chilling overnight. On the other hand, Herme recipe requires no chilling time. But it takes time to make the filling. Besides, it 's difficult to cut the tart in pieces since the filling 's soft and silky.

Jacques Reymond

2009-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Did I come to the correct address? Yes, I think so… I feel like I were a poor cousin when walking down a walk way to a house and had cars ran passed by.

Dingdong…dingdong… A lady in suit opened the dark wooden door and welcomed me inside… before leading me to my table. It’s quite weird to dine alone here but what to do… It was my last week in Melbourne and I wanted to try Jacques Reymond in Prahran.

This 's another time that I waited for too long to blog up this article that I forgot how good the dishes are. So, I decided not to try to explain it... the only thing that I remember 's foods 're great and I was happily eating there for nearly 3 hrs :)
I started my first course with 'Tasmanian Pacific oysters, tobiko, and leeks with ponsu dressing'. It seemed normal but these oysters are served warm! Snapper with togaroshi and wasabi, ponzu dressing, squid and orange witlof 's my second dish.
Quail tempura and asparagus, dry curry of the legs with carrots and cauliflower. JR presented a quail with both Japanese and Indian influences. The breast 's deep fried in tempura style while cooked the leg part with curry and decorated with cute mini vegies.

I 'm so impressed with this dish that I decided to order wallaby. At first I didn't want to eat wallaby because it 's so cute eventhough the menu 's so tempting.

Saddle of wallaby and sancho, butternut pumpkin and mild asian flavours 's my last dish for the 4 courses ($80).
Special of the day dessert: summer berries with cream ($12). This 's another dish that I impressed. It 's full of berries; strawberry, cherry, blueberry, boysenberry, and raspberry...yum..yum..yum. But what truely amazed me 's the cream... it has a hint of coffee in it :P Complimentaried petits fours - chocolate mousse

Eclipse and The Cupcake Family

2009-11-17T02:06:00.000-08:00

I thought I have one more year in Melbourne but I have not. I have to move to Sydney. So, I start to visit as many cafes as I can while I stay here as a part of saying goodbye to Melbourne. I started a day by going to The Cupcake Family, a cute little cupcake shop in QV.

Cupcakes there 're ok, moist and quite sweet. It also offers a good deal, 4 mini cupcakes for $7. So, I grabbed green tea cake, strawberry-chocolate cake, almond-orange cake, and blueberry cheesecake to share with my friend.

After finishing cupcakes, we went to Eclipse, a coffe place at the rear of Intercontinental Hotel. I couldn't find a place when walking along Flinder Lane so I had to walk through Intercontinental Hotel from Collins Street entrance.

I was still not sure whether I came to the right place but I didn't hesitate to go in since I saw that Panama Geisha 's the single origin of the day, lucky me :DYes, my friend and I came to the right place. I started with house blend latte, which I later knew that it 's called 'coffee junkie' blend. Yes, I can imagine I addict to this blend, it 's a smooth and strong coffee that go along well with latte. I was happily drank it while enjoying the view :D before ordering a second cup, Panama, ofcourse. I think it 's a pleasant coffee. It 's earthy, woody, chocolatie, with a hint of sweet and mild punchiness.

Eclipse: 7A/495 Collins St, Flinders ln entrance, between King St & William St)

Kenzan@GPO II

2009-11-10T16:07:00.001-08:00

Yes, I like Kenzan @GPO. I always go there if I can't decide or don't know where should I eat while in CBD. This 's another time that I been there, grabbing sushi and ramen for my lunch. I quickly chose salmon&mango sushi because it 's the last one along with spider roll. I confess that I grabbed salmon&mango because it 's pretty to an eye. It 's surprisingly turned out to taste fantastic. The sweetness of mango 's well balance with salmonAnother fantastic dish, seafoods ramen with real bamboo shoot!

Coffee place

2009-09-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Serious coffee cafe
Used Veneziano coffee beans

Monsieur Truffe

2009-09-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

hmm.....
(Silence) .... umm... hmm...
yumm....
3-course dessert degustations($45) at Monsieur Truffe by Pierre Roelofs

My only regret 's these pictures can't do the desserts justices :(

Bar Etiquette

2009-09-07T04:23:00.000-07:00

408 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Tel: (03)9387 3843

While LS and I studied drinking menu outside Bar Etiquette to see if there 's anything that interested us, there was a guy walked out of the bar who told us that there is no coffee here. LOL, as it isn't obvious enough... it 's a bar :DDD We went in anyway, browsed around.... beer garden at the back, rooms upstairs... I like the room with lots of umbrellas on ceiling most. Surprisingly, this bar serves coffee as well. It 's an espresso shot with sherry cocktail ($16) It tastes like a mix between coffee and butterscotch... yumm.. It 's not in the menu, though. It turned out that the bartender is developing his menu :)))

After read through a menu, I found out that it 's only 4 dishes on the list. LS found out later that this bar 's a BYO food!

Le Triskel

2009-08-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

32 Hardware lane, Melbourne
0466 406 404

I never write about Le Triske before though I should write about this lovely creperie long time ago... It 's always the place I bring my new friends there.
If I go there before 11 a.m., my favorite 'd be a 'Bol de Cafe au Lait' with either French Tartines or Pain au Chocolat. I never have to choose just either since I always share both tartines and pain au chocolat with my sis. She went back to Thailand and I can't finish it alone :(

I 'm so inlove with tartines because it 's a toasted bagutte with butter and marmalade jam on top... after taking a bite, you 'll feel the crust, follow by melt salted butter which 's a lovely compliment to marmalade. Pain au chocolat also good... fluffy crossaint with chocolate inside.

What 'll I have after 11 a.m.? Crepes, ofcourse :D My favorite savory crepe 's the last one on the menu which contains blue cheese, walnut, and apple. Basically, it 's a waldorf salad in crepe version :P For sweet crepe, I like a simple lemon and sugar crepe.

No... this crepe 's not crepes I mentioned about. This 's as you can guess, a picture of chocolate and banana crepe.

If I can lure my friend there on Friday's evening, I 'll do a cheese plate... very yummy one...Swiss Gruyere, Fleur du Marquis(the one near bread), Sevre&Belle Caprifeuille (blue cheese) and Fourme d'Ambert (round shape one).

This 's le Triskel's name card and also act as a loyalty card... cute little stars on the name card indicate the number of coffee I drink here. If I have 7 stars, I 'll earn one free cup of coffee :D

Farmers' Market @ Collingwood Children's Farm Part II

2009-08-08T04:26:00.000-07:00

I went to the 2nd week farmers' market again in August with friends, it was a very lovely sunny day with clear blue sky. The market 's as busy as usual with lots of people, kids running around, and dogs.

I didn't realize before today that there 's another part of a farm in the back of the market... I think I always busy buying vegs and fruits.. and enjoys to much, lol. So, we went there and surprise to see worm's farm. Yeah,... worms..the one that live underground and help vegs to grow...After that, we went to see pigs, not just a normal pig but a breed called, Berkshire. Yes, it 's the one that very yummy... lol I really like this sign... we, human, suppose not to touch pigs in order to prevent them from catching a flu from us, lol

Coffee... coffee... and coffee...

2009-08-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

These places 're the places I love to go for a cup of coffee. If you can't find me in uni, go check on these places, lol

Jasper Coffee, 267 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Dancing Goat, 280 King Street, Melbourne, corner of King st/Lt.Lonsdale

Toby's estate, 29 Weston Street, Brunswick

Sweet Agora, Stall 33 South Melbourne Market

Brother Baba Budan, 359 Lt.Bourke St., Melbourne

And checking these places out, I normally go there if I 'd like something to nibble:

Le Triskle, a french crepe shop in Hardware Lane, ask for a bowl of cafe lait

Little Cupcake, Degrave/Flinder Street

Mart Cafe + Auction Rooms

2009-07-04T00:12:00.001-07:00

I love Melbourne, it 's a city fulls of cute litte cafes. Cafes 're everywhere even on a tram stop. On 96 tram toward St.Kilda Beach, there 's a cafe called Mart Cafe right on the Middle Park tram stop, you can't miss it!
No, the cafe isn't on that side, it 's on the opposite side of the tram stop.

My hot chocolate :P

At first, I wanted french toast with bacon but was distracted by special of the day, 'Poached eggs with veal-pork sausages, spinach, and beetroots on sour dough.' The truth 's I didn't see the word beetroots. If I saw it first, I wouldn't order this dish since I don't like its aroma. BUT I 'll make exception for this dish...it 's gooddd when putting a little of this and that together in one bite.

Corn fritters also interesting, I tried a little from my friend's dish. Inside the fritters, there also have shred pickle onion inside. I 'll go back to try that:P I was informed that this dish has got a breakfast of the year award a couple of years back.

Mart Cafe 's a little gems that you 'll be easily falling in love with. The foods 're good that six of us had no conversation for a while. Plus, you 'll get a view overlook a park which always have people playing footy and cheering :P A very lovingly Melbournian feeling...

Another cafe I went a few weeks back 's Auction Rooms in North Melbourne. Just a short walk from my place. It was fully packed, luckily we had a table. A sugar container 's very cool, isn't it?

My friend's cappuchino

My latte, house blend, was surprisingly good

My favorite breakfast of all time, poached eggs, I like ooziness but never attemp to poach it at home. Auction Rooms uses Green Egg which sadly I can't taste the different between a normal one and Green egg, so I 'll stick to buy the cheaper one since I can't tell the difference. Anyway, my breakfast 's baked beans, french toast, and poached eggs, classic combination. It 's doing alright.

My friend's breakfast. A combination of fried egg on sour dough, spinach, mushrooms, ham, and fried tomato.

I 'll come back to Auction Rooms for good coffee :)

Coda

2009-06-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

Basement 141 Flinder Lane (Cnr Oliver Lane), opposite Yu-u
Tel: 9650 3155

I don't really sure how come Movida take reservation at the bar section but it happened last night...so I blindly followed LS into Flinder Lane and walked along Oliver Lane into a new tapas bar. It was again fully booked. Luckily, the lovely waitress took pity on two hungry girls and offered us to sit at the bar, which we happily accepted.

I was so tired that I couldn't read the menu straight... had to focus :) Menu 's very interesting with a lot of exotic ingredients like beetle leave, rice paddle leave, etc. We started with Spanner crab ($5 each) with pomelo and beetle leaf with roasted chili and lemon dressing and topped with fried sliced shallots. It looked like my favorite Thai snack...Mieng Kham... LS thinks the dressing needs more spicy to make it more refreshing, which I agreed since I can't detect any chili taste at all.

Next tapas 's scallop ($6 each) on white sauce topped with salmon roe... it 's good, decent..a little bit too salty though

Cured Kingfish ($12) came next, the salty of fish 's well balance with carrot pickles and yuzu dressing. At this stage, we were happy :P The bone marrow and shitake ($8 each) was next, came in a springroll style with lemon & white pepper dressing and garnished with rice paddle leave. We were suggested to break springroll in half and drop dressing in to best enjoy it. When breaking, earthly scent of mushrooms rose. LS and I agreed that garnish shouldn't be wasted. It 's surprisingly good and gave some freshness to springroll.

Snails ($12) with white sauce & lemon, topped with puff pastry. Lemon gave a twang to this dish... we practically licked all the sauce up...that's good....

Cassoulet of Rabbit (29) with white beans also great...it looks like typical cassarole but... I wanted rice to go with it...very gingerly and zingling.

We then decided to order one more dish, steak tartare ($15) with quail egg and mustard leave. It came with melba cracker... NO...it 's not a cracker but I forgot that word...still thinking... :( Anyway, it 's suprisingly goooooooooood. Saltiness of anchovy and melba beautifully completes this dish. Can I say it 's better than Guillaume at Bennelong's one? I know it 's not fair, it just like compare Ping Lady with Gala apple... it actually depends on what is our liking. But... I compared it in the sense that I can keep eatting steak tartare here and not bored with it, really... I 'll come back for this dish. It is so great that we had to sparingly shared the last melba :P

Steak tartare 's perfectly married with Cotes du Rhone '04, Grenache. The Somelier offered Grenache because of rabbit and snails dishes, which we happily accepted. To wrap up our dinner, we chose the dessert taste plate ($16); lemon tart with yuzu mashmellow and chocolate pod with pumkin fome....so cute, isn't it?

Lemon tart is a little bit too sharp but the chocolate pot is extremely good. So good that we have to rearrange our dessert preferences :) The coffee 's not bad neither. They use Gravity coffee which made LS reluctantly order her latte and mine is Mocha. The coffee 're doing o.k.

After we went through all dishes, we also spied other tables nearby to see what they had :P We notice that our somelier 's good. While I wandered away, LS notice that he busied himself over one bottle of Red... starting from warming the bottle up, opened and smell...then started pouring wine into the decanter...in order to let wine breathe. After these process, it confirmed itself that this wine is the expensive one, so we 'd like to know which table this wine 'll go ...nosey, aren't we?

It turned out to be a good nosey though. That red went to the table next to ours, Hugo Weaving's table...we sat next to him for nearly 3 hours and didn't know...hahaha... we too obsess in foods there, I think :P In case you don't know who he is, I confess I don't which made me gain a disapproved look from LS... he 's an actor who played a role of King of Fairy in Lords of the Rings, Matrix, etc.

Overall, foods are exceptional fab, especially snails, steak tartare, and chocolate pot. I 'm happily to come here alone not only because I know I 'll get good food but also I know that staffs there passionate enough to talk lengthly with me about their foods and wines :)

C(ouncil) H(ouse) 2 - The 'Dutce Mess'

2009-06-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

I heard about 'orange sorbet' for a few weeks but didn't catch the place where they serve it. I heard that again last night when LS mentioned about it to other couples that shared our table in Circa. (To celebrate products that received Vouge Product Awards 2009) I then went there today after failing to concentrate to do my research report :( since I was thinking about the sorbet too much. I went to CH2 around 3 p.m. Not so many people there, just a few tables occupied.

A staff asked what I would like...

Me: The 'Dutch Mess' (without hesitation since I was told to come here for this dessert)

Staff: umm..we change the menu and it 's already off the menu

Me: oh! :( I really like to have this dish....if it 's off the menu, I want any dessert that has orange sorbet..(with a plea in my eyes...)

Staff: o.k...I 'll see what I can do. I 'll go check with the chef. (I changed my mind, brownie point for him)

... ... a few minutes later...

Staff: The chef said he can do it for you.

Me: HuRay!!!! (no, I didn't say that out loud)

The dessert was in a bowl with lid on....after taking a lid off, the first thing I think about 's orange fragrant...sweet, soothing, lovely orange fragrant. The first spoon I ducked in was ofcourse for orange sorbet..which I positively think it made from navel oranges. A taste 's so sweet, natural and refreshing.

Imagine the 'Dutch Mess' as a playground for a chef (Rob Kabboord) with only oranges as a core ingredient. There 're navel orange sorbet, candied orange zests, brioche with cointreau, and mandarin segments, which 're combinded by vanila ice-cream.

Every spoonful 's tasted differently, all ridiculously delicious, depending on a combination in that spoonful.

I was really disappointed that this dessert 's already off the menu and told staffs there about it. One of them said he 'll talk with the chef to get it back on the menu. I then had a chance to tell him that LS not only told me about Dutch Mess but also told other persons in Circa last night to come here and give it a try. The first reaction I 've got from him 's "Shit!" yes, he actually said that...and then he said he definitely has to talk with the chef...

Fingers cross, I really want this dish on the menu... 'cos it 's a dish that can lift my soul :P I went out of there bounching with happiness.

Gigibaba

2009-06-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

105 Smith Street, Collingwood
Tue-Sun 6-11p.m.
Tel: 9486 0345
Tram 86 Stop 15

I should write about Gigibaba long time ago since I went to this place for ages, in April, I think. But I don't know how to write about it since I didn't take photos and also don't know names of foods that were served to me and my friends. We did banquet style ($55p.p) so foods were served quickly and I didn't want to interupt my friends by holding them on for me to take pics. :P

I knew about this place because of a restaurant review in The Age and interesting in this place because of Chef Ismail Tosun who shuted his restaurant 'Eminem' in Perth shortly after receiving one of the Gourmet traveller award.

So, we went there one Wednesday night and planned to meet at 6 sharp since the restaurant takes no reservation policy. I was there at 6.15 p.m. and the door was locked. Luckily, one of my friends went there before 6p.m. and was third in line so we had a table, a communual one since there were 7 of us. The staff told my friend that the record for this restaurant 's it fulls at 6.03p.m. @#$% That's popular!!

We decided to do banquet to cut out the ordering problem, which proof to be a good call. We had around 10 types of appetizers, another 10 for meats, and 3 desserts (2 sets of all except the fish and octopus), including turkish coffee...yumm... They served generously that I felt full before half of meats came out and was grateful when the waiter said 'this 's the last dish.', so I didn't have to eat anymore. Though, I still have some space for desserts, which were good as well. Turkish coffee also nice and not to sweet just well balance with the sweetness of desserts.

We decided to walk back home to help digestion... our home 're not that far just walk from Smith Street, Collingwood to near Victoria Market...hahaha... I wish they 'll do lunch service..I think dinner this size 's too..much. But if they don't, dinner 's o.k. :P

Hellenic Republic

2009-06-10T05:34:00.001-07:00

It was a fifth Saturday of the month so there is no farmers'market to go. I then decided to do breakfast with my friend JJ. We took tram no.8 to get off at Stop 126 at the corner of Stewart St/Lygon St., aiming for Hellenic Republic, one of George Calombaris Greek restaurants. It 's right in front of a tram stop.

After pushing pass a heavy wood door, we boarded a ship travelling the Aegean Sea. (not exactly like that but it was what I feel like) The cafe 's decorated with the white and blue theme as typicaly Greek cafe but it also has robes, high ceiling, and the feeling of the sea breeze :)

I studied menu from home since I wanted to make sure I 'll have Greek yoghurt. My breakfast today was for sure 'yoghurt with Attiki honey and walnuts.'($8.50) Yoghurt 's too runny to be Greek yoghurt (Though I just realized a few minutes ago when I checked the menu to write correctly what I did order that the menu said 'house made yoghurt' not 'greek yoghurt') So, it 's correct that the yoghurt 's too runny to be Greek since it 's not Greek yoghurt. :(

Since it 's not Greek yoghurt, I 'll rate it as a good yoghurt with a lovely flavour honey and generous walnuts. It was going along well with Greek coffee, this time I sure that it was Greek coffee, without sugar 'cos my breakfast 's quite sweet already.

JJ also drank Greek coffee that day with sugar, ofcourse. Her breakfast 's comfy and decent, Gigantes with baked eggs and Greek baked beans ($11.50)

The service 's worth noted. The staff served our breakfasts and coffee correctly without asking who ordered what.

Rating: Service 4, Food 3.5

Good Food & Wine Show 2009

2009-06-05T04:35:00.000-07:00

I woke up at 9, had breakfast at 10, and prepared to go to Good Food & Wine Show 2009 at 11. I arrived at the show around 30 minutes before the gate open but a lot of people were already inside.

After getting inside, there were long queue lined up to enter to the show area. The first thing I did is queue up at box office for Tobie Puttock ticket and after that went to collect Gordon Ramsay book before went to Celebrety Theatre.

The first show I attended was Gordon Ramsay. He cooked 'Cod and Tomato Chowder', which is basically minestone soup with barleys and steamed cod. I later ate in the restaurant with Lindemans Early Harvest Semillon Sauvignon Blanc to taste what taste it supposes to have and I can make it at home later. Flat leaf pasleys play a major role in this dish, it releases fresh flavour which can raise your soul up after a bad day. Other dishes he cooked were 'Glazed Salmon with Spinach and radish salad' and 'Poached Pears in Mulled Wine.' Salmon was marinated in honey, soy sauce, ginger and dijon mustard. Aroma of stir-fried spinach was de...liciously Asian style. (It's one of the benefit of having a seat in front row :P) Poached pears also interesting as the combination of herbs and spices in the wine, which are cinnemon, lemonglass, star anise, I forgot another spices :( Cream was whipped with lime zest and lime juice.
After the show, I went straight to queue up Gordon's book signing line. Book signing time 's approximately 30 minutes per session. I was so nervous because the staff there said Gordon would sign for only 100 persons but she let me stay in a line with my fingers crossed. I finally got my book signed. Gordon 's so friendly and very very nice not like in T.V. shows or as critics said. He took time talking while signing a book so everyone feels special. I told him that I can't wait to try his new restaurant, which he answered that it 'll be opened on 1st of March next year.
I waited in a line and get Gordon signed my book around 2.30 so I missed Tobie Puttock Masterclass. But I 'm not complaining since I was lucky to get my book signed by Gordon Ramsay. (He supposed to finish signing book since 1.45) So, I bought Tobie book and get it signed for my sister's birthday instead, she 's his fans.

I know that Tobie 's young but never though that he 's this young. Wow! very young for an executive chef, indeed. After all the signing, I wandered around, finded something to eat, and decided to go for another Masterclass, Gary Mehigan&George Calombaris, at 4.30. Before the show, I had Tobie's Caramelised Brioche with Forest Berries. When chewing Brioche, it became custard...yummy.
Gary and George 're very funny, it seems like we watch live MasterChef on Friday night. Gary was very upset with his donuts since he/the staff forgot to turn on the frying machine, LOL So, rule number one: when making donut, make sure you turn on the frying machine. It was so funny that the audients keep laughing.

After the show, I went to the signing book booth again...no..not buy another book to sign though it was so tempting. I went there because I wanted to take Gary and George pics up close. When they walked down, people rushed to them for autographs and pictures. I was also one of the mop :P I 've got a pic with Gary Mehigan.

Another picture is with George Calombaris but my face 's not good. I was talking to him about visiting his restaurant, Hellenic Republic, last week for breakfast. So, rule number two: don't talk when taking photo :(

I just realized that it was dark now so it should be time to head home. I went out of there around 6 p.m. Time flys when you 're enjoying yourself is so true!

Seven Seeds

2009-06-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

114 Berkeley St, Carlton

Mon-Sat 7am-5pm & Sun 8:30am-4pm

I knew about this place about a week ago and went straight there but it did not open yet :( So, I went back and browsed into their website and found that they 'll have cupping there on 6th Jun. then I think I 'll go back there on Sat.

Even it doesn't open yet, at least I took pics. This 's Berkeley Street entrance

Another pic from Berkeley street

Seven Seeds address in its website said that it can access from Berkeley St. But I found out later that it can access through Barry st. as well. But it 's a bit hard to find from Barry street since it 's in a lane opposite Melbourne Uni's Law building.

Seven Seeds' entrance from Barry Street.

Why 'm I so keen about this place? I love Brother Baba Budan's coffee but I have to walk for about 20 minutes to go there. When I found out that BBB has a new branch named Seven Seeds and its location 's about less than a minute walk from my place (actually, I can see its building from my place), I wanted to go try coffee there. If coffee there 's great, I won't have to walk for nearly half an hour to have good coffee anymore.

When I was studying in law library this morning (2 Jun 09), I noticed there was smokes out from Seven Seeds place. I, then, assumed that it should be opened since I knew they roast coffee beans on site. As you can guess, I went there out of curiosity and yes today is their opening day.

First, I notice 2 griders and no blackboards or anything that show what coffee they have today so I asked and ended up with a house blend.

I chose a table next to cupping room, I browsed around while waiting for my cofee.

They also serve cupcakes, pastries, and sandwiches.

Their small kitchen

The most interesting thing here 's a clover machine. YES, the clover machine! They told me that they have 2 machines since I asked whether they moved a clover from Brother Baba Budan. Though, I didn't ask which coffee 's on the clover today since I already ordered my coffee.

My mocha, latte art 's nice, coffee colour 's right. After the first sip, the taste isn't quite right, it 's a bit waterly. I don't know why. But the overall, coffee here 's doing o.k. comparing to other around here but can't compare to Brother Baba Budan for sure. I 'll give them another try next week, after all this 's their first day. Cross my fingers, their coffee 's going to be better if not I still have to walk for 20 minutes for a nice cup of coffee.

I went back here a few days later and coffee was perfect!

Brother Baba Budan

2009-05-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

This 's my newest favorite coffee cafe. I moved from my last one because of the inconsistence in coffee there, needless to say. I walked pass this place several time and noticed that it always has people gathering in front of the cafe waiting for their order.

The first time there I tried latte (house coffee) and it 's real nice :P I went back there again to check for the consistency of coffee and yes..yippy.. there's a consistency in a good coffee there.. lucky me

I just realized that it 's a famous coffee cafe when I went to the farmers'market with LS a day later. LS talked about another coffee cafe which also famous in South Melbourne, so I mentioned about Brother Baba Budan. It turned out that these two cafes have clover machines which quite rare since Starbucks bought a company that invented a clover machine. After youtubing how a clover machine works, I 'd like to try...hahaha...

After having lunch with JJ, we decided to go to BBB for a cup of coffee. I was double lucky that coffee on clover machine that day 's (Panama) La Esmeralda. It 's an interesting coffee. It has a soft acidity and a long sweet aftertaste. It also has bergamot and orange flavour...umm...yum...

Cafe Vue's May Lunch Box

2009-05-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

Normanby Chambers
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC

Cafe Vue was busy as usual. JJ and I went there a quarter before 12 p.m. and it was packed. We were lucky enough to get a last table. We ordered lunch boxes and water.

May lunch box ($15) has a Wild mushroom and rice cakes w. tarragon mayonnaise for a starter; Red pepper, caper, anchovy, and parsley salad; Tuna bagel and pickled beet root; and Chocolate macaroon. (From top right on anti-clockwise)

A rice cake was nice, perfectly cooked, there also was a coconut flavour which 's in the breadcrumbs. My favorite 's chilled red capsicum salad, very refreshing. Bagel's o.k., it had tuna paste, pickled beetroot and rockets. The macaroon's good, the filling's chocolate ganache. Overall 's o.k. not a bad place for a guick lunch.

Yu-u

2009-05-16T02:44:00.001-07:00

137 Flinders Lane

Tel: 9639 7073

After disappointed that I couldn't fine the place last week, I went back there again this week. I also made a reservation to make sure I 'll have a seat there...lol 'cause I heard the place 's always full.

O.K. I knew that it 's at 137 Flinders lane, which 's the corner of Russell st.&Flinder ln but the entrance 's at Oliver lane. Its entrance 's the red graffiti door, not a nice graffiti though.

When I went inside, it 's another world...very japanese.

My friend and I both ordered the set menu ($18), which the main course 'll changes daily. The appertizer, on that day, 's wakame salada (seaweed salad).

The first set 's Seafood deep-fried set, 1 prawn, 2 calamari rings, and 1 crab meat cake with Tonkatsu sauce. Deep-fried seafood were nice, golden and crispy.

The other set 's Beef w Japanese BBQ sauce. The soup 's the miso soup which I detected that there was a taste of butter. I think that the chef stir-fried vege with butter before put it in the soup. It tastes alright, though.

Overall, both set lunches were decent but not unexceptional good.

Kenzen@GPO

2009-05-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

Kenzen @ GPO
Shop G28, GPO Building
Tel: 9663 7767

After walked pass little Japanese cafe in the GPO for several time, I had a chance to dine there at last. Actually, it was an accident. On that Friday, I planned to have lunch at Yu-u but I couldn't find it... another victim of Melbourne lane way :( Anyway, I want lunch but where should I go to guarantee a nice traditional japanese lunch. So, I decided to try Kenzen @GPO instead. I went there around 12.15 and it was busy and packed.

I order Tenzen Udon and hot green tea which 's perfect for a cold day.

Japanese seasoning

Tenzen Udon has several tempura; 2 prawns, cucumber, carrot, bean, and pumkin. My first sip of shoyu sauce was a little bit to salty BUT after trying udon, it 's getting better and better. The udon was silky, soft, and has elasticity, umm.. yum...

Nobu @ Crown Casino

2009-05-01T23:13:00.001-07:00

Crown Entertainment Complex

8 Whiteman Street, Southbank

Tel: 9292 7879

I craved for sashimi quite sometime but too busy to go out. Last Saturday, I went to lunch at Nobu in the Crown casino. The head chef of Nobu, Melbourne 's run by Mr.Tadashi Takahashi.

I went there just a few minute before noon. The restaurant isn't officially open but they let me wait inside and gave me wine lists to study. :P

While waiting, I took some pics. To confirm that I have nothing to do, I also took a picture of restaurant's ceiling. Hahaha...

For a stater, I had Ume Shiso cut roll ($10), ume 's japanese pickled plum tasted sour and shiso 's a herb in the mint family. Ume shiso taste 's refreshing. Wasabi here also great, it has a hot tasted with a hint of sweet.

My main course 's Chi Ra Shi Zhusi ($35), assorted raw fishes with rice. It 's served with Miso soup (standard one, bean curd with wakame) and pickles; broccoli stem, eggplant, and wakame.

I save Chi Ra Shi's pics for last, haha.. O.K. what 's in this bowl, it has... salmon, red snapper, tuna, crab meat, hotate (scallop), negihama (king fish with sliced sping onions), ikura, shiso, omelette, kappa (cucumber), prawn, and shiso as topping. It also has rice with white sesame.

Another pic of Chi Ra Shi.

Umm..yummy.. I love sweet taste of raw fish but it came with a price. I had to speed up a bit to eat before it lost its freshness, yeah..every second counted. So, I had to eat raw fish first before continue to the cooked ones. Which one I like most? umm.. can I choose 2? 2 maybe not enough, though. My most favorite 's hotate and then red snapper. And, omelette 's worth mention. It 's soft and cremy when bited but still firm to the touch.

Ma Ma Nee

2009-04-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

324 Smith Street, Collingwood
Tram No.86, Stop 19
Tel: 9419 0538

Lunch: Thu-Sun 11.00 a.m.-3.00 p.m.
Dinner: Tue-Sun 5.30 p.m.-10.30 p.m.

Oh! I 'm home at last...umm, not really going home but I ate Thai foods at Ma Ma Nee. I haven't had traditional Thai dishes with truely Thai flavour for quite some time. Normally, I cook simple Thai dishes at home and prefer not to eat Thai foods outside...because it always tastes different. I 'm interested about Ma Ma Nee because two of my Thai friends separately told me about this place on the same day!

The sample of Thai menu. They have both Thai and English menus.

Special menu of the day.

The first dish arrived 's คั่วกลิ้งกระดูกหมูอ่อน (Kol Kling Ka Duk Moo On). I don't know what it actually called in English. It 's basically stir-ried pork ribs with onion, garlic, white peppers, lemonglass, dried chille, turmeric, and kaffir lime leaves.

Deep-fried chicken with onion in Hat Yai style (ไก่ทอดหาดใหญ่). Hat Yai 's famous for fried chicken. Basically, chicken 'll be marinated with ground white pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar. I ordered this dish to help me deal with other dishes which 're all very spicy.

Stir-fried stink beans with shrimps (สะตอผัดกุ้ง) 's another spicy dish. This dish has quite strong smell because of the stink beans and shrimp paste.

This one 's my favorite, yellow curry with fish and preserved bamboo shoots (แกงเหลืองปลากระบอกหน่อไม้ดอง). It 's a very spicy soup. It also has a strong smell because of the shrimp paste, again.

For desserts, I ordered Taro dumpling (บัวลอยเผือก) and Lod Chong (ลอดช่อง). Both are Thai desserts served in coconut milk. Taro dumpling made from taro and sticky rice flour while Lod Chong made from rice flour.

Lod Chong

Taro dumpling