Kung Hei Fat Choi! In the year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi in the year of the Snake Wishing you all a prosperous, happy and healthy new year! It’s time to say goodbye to the Dragon and welcome the Snake! Do you celebrate Chinese New Year (CNY)?

Being alone in Melbourne with Mr Bao and no family, we didn’t plan anything for CNY and decided to just go with the flow We do miss celebrating with family, having a huge feast together and receiving lots of red packets (envelope with money inside )

Because of CNY, I was inspired to write a post about the HK street food I was indulging in Really sorry, but I didn’t manage to get the price and address of every item, but if you go to HK, these can be easily found on the streets especially in Mong Kok.

Rice Noodle Roll (Chu Cheong Fun) $12HK ($1.50AUD) found at snack food stores

As soon as I arrived in HK, my parents bought me these delicious Chu Cheong Fun otherwise known as Rice noodle rolls. The ones we get at Yum Cha usually have a filling such as BBQ pork (char siu), prawns or beef. But these are plain rice noodles rolls cut into little pieces and covered in the best sauces Hoi Sin Sauce, Sesame Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sweet Chilli Sauce and toasted sesame. It’s a really simple dish and very cheap to make and buy, but it’s SO damn good I love the rustic way they wrap the cheong fun in butchers paper and in a plastic bad, and you eat them with bamboo skewers!

Curry Fish Balls $8HKD ($1AUD) found from snack food stores

One afternoon, Dad took me out on a ‘Street Food’ raid in Jordan, and the first thing I got was the Curry Fish Balls. If you grew up in HK, I’m sure you have had you fair share of curry fish balls These fish balls were hot, spicy and super bouncy hehe it’s very hard to find these kind of fish balls outside of Australia. If you grew up in HK I’m sure you have had your fair share of curry fish balls, do you remember when they use to be sold in those carts on the streets? Unfortunately, due to hygene factors theres a lot less of them around on the streets now

“Soup Dumpling” Guan Tang Jiao available from most Yum Cha outlets

Yum Cha in Australia is pretty good so I don’t have much to complain about that ~ but I do miss Soup Dumplings or they are called ‘Guan Tang Jiao’ in Chinese It may seen strange to some but basically the Soup Dumpling is literally placing a dumpling with chicken, mushroom and prawn filling into a bowl of soup. It’s a very comforting dish ~

Retro Vitasoy milk $7.9HKD ($1AUD) available at 7/11 and other convenience stores

Dad then got me this retro Vitasoy milk in a glass bottle that was slightly warmed in hot water. Dad was also telling me how these retro Vitasoys use to be 20c HKD hahaha and now have increased to $7.9HKD ~ I’m not usually a fan of the Vitasoy in the paper packs, but something about the glass bottle really made it taste better, a much stronger soy taste.

Red Bean Icy Pole $6HK ($0.80AUD) available at 7/11 and Supermarkets

On our way home one day, we saw a street store selling ice-cream and other sweets, Dad immediately pulled over and bought two Red Bean Icy Poles These are his favourite ~ if you like red bean desserts, you’ll definitely like this, it’s not too sweet with crushes red bean throughout the icy pole.

HK Style Baked Sweet Potato $15HKD ($1.8AUD) found on the street

This may not look that attractive, but I love these HK style baked sweet potato I’m not sure how they ‘baked’ whether they used charcoal or something else. But the sweet potatoes are a different variety than the ones we get in Australia, I found them to be much sweeter. They occasionally have the purple sweet potatoes too ~ but I didn’t see them this time.

Cocktail Buns approximately $8HKD ($1AUD) available from most HK bakeries

Even though, I love my artisan breads, I occasionally do crave HK style bakeries, the breads are simply different with a much lighter texture. My favourite are these cocktail buns with a sweet coconut filling! Thankfully we can get these here in Melbourne Bread Top and they’re not that bad either ~

Sweet beancurd (Tofu far) $9HKD ($1.1AUD) from Kung Wo Dou Bun 

I’m very lucky because there’s an amazing store that sells Tofu Far, Kung Wo Dou Bun which I’ve blogged about ~ It quite sad because I haven’t found tofu far that I really like in Melbourne, it’s all made from powder and gelatine. While the ones in HK are made from soy milk and has a strong soy flavour.

Egg Waffle $12HKD (($.150AUD) and Pearl Milk Tea $15HKD($1.90AUD) available from  snack food stores

Egg waffles are probably the most famous HK street snack, they’re called egg waffles I assume because of their bubble shape. It’s got a pretty unique texture, I love the ones that are freshly made, super hot, crispy and a pillowy inside Unfortunately, it’s quite hard to find fresh and delicious egg waffles now in HK, but if you’re lucky you’ll find them in Jordan and Mongkok ~

Pearl Milk Tea originated from Taiwan, and many Milk Tea outlets such as Gong Cha, Chatime and Comebuy have opened in HK basically every corner. I personally think they taste better than the ones we get in Melbourne and very similar to the ones made in Taiwan

HK Style Waffle $12HKD ($1.5AUD) found from snack food outlets

These HK Style Waffles go hand in hand with the Egg Waffles Most people either like one or the other like me BOTH hehe These waffles have a very spongey texture and not at all crispy, and you can see it is folded in half, because inside its slathered with generous amounts of peanut butter, condensed milk and sprinkle of caster sugar! It’s SO hard to find HK waffles now most places are very stingy with the spread or have pre-made the waffles and hence, they’re quite dry and stiff. But if you manage to find these, trust me you will LOVE them!

Tai Cheong Bakery

Last but not least Egg Tarts! Egg Tarts! Egg Tarts! I had so many of them in HK this time

Tai Cheong Egg Tarts $5HKD ($0.8AUD)

In my opinion, Tai Cheong Bakery probably makes the best egg tarts in HK ~ I love the biscuit/short bread crust and not the flakey puff pastry (I’m weird ) While the filling has a rich egg flavour and very silky texture. They’re even better when they’re fresh out of the oven, luckily, there are now many Tai Cheong Egg Tarts and most make yummy egg tarts. But if you can I would recommend you going to their main store in Central and see if you can catch some freshly baked ones.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and it wasn’t too random for you Once again sorry for not being able to provide you with the exact address of all the places to get the food. But if you do happen to travel to HK and would like some advice please feel free to email me and I’d be more than happy to help you!

Paris is definitely one of the most romantic cities and one of my favourite! I was seriously the happiest girl on earth as soon as we landed in Charles De Gaulle airport hehe

Me at Arc de Triomphe

I have so many stories and places I’d love to share with you guys! But first I’d like to share a few photos that I took this time which I really like ~

Eiffel Tower at Night 

Last time I went to Paris, I was a little younger and I don’t think I appreciated the architecture as much ~ But I remember going up the Eiffel Tower and how pretty I was to look at the city from above. We didn’t go up this time because queues were seriously crazy especially with only one elevator working. The iconic Eiffel Tower is still stunning and looks even better at night when it’s sparkles and shines

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

Win Win took this picture and I love it! It’s Basilique du Sacré-Cœur a Roman Catholic Church at the highest point in the city ~ It not is this church amazing, it also provides a magnificent view of the rest of Paris This time we went Sacré-Cœur was covered in snow, which was quite different from last time when we went.

Source: Paris Must See 

Anyhow, do you remember Burger and Lobster in London and how they only had 3 items on their menu? Here at Le Relais de L’Entrecote there’s only ONE ITEM on the menu and that’s Steak and Fries! Yup that’s it! Nothing else! They have an extensive dessert menu but other than that you’re not going to get any savoury dishes

Ignorantly, I haven’t heard of Le Relais de L’Entrecote before coming to Paris nor did I know it was so famous but Win Win had visited Paris so many times and have tried Le Relais de L’Entrecote and she said it’s definitely ‘blogworthy’ so I took her word We tried going on the second night we were in Paris, but at 8pm…lines were still crazy and being -6 degrees Celsius we didn’t want to wait so went else where. The next day I made sure we got there just before 6pm…then realised they don’t open till 7pm *FAIL* We didn’t know what to do or where to go so we ended up standing outside in the cold for nearly an hour hahaha I was worried that this wasn’t worth it

Eventually, the hour past and we were finally let inside to this tiny restaurants with tables back to back, it was rather cramped and to be honest, not the most comfortable. But staff were friendly with huge smiles on their faces. Win Win warned Anonymous Sister and I again lol “Don’t bother asking for a menu! There’s only steak and fries you just tell them how you want the steak cooked” hahaha The friendly waitress immediately asked how we would like the steak cooked. I replied “medium rare”, she shook her head and said in her thick French accent “No no no here Rare, Medium or Well done no Medium Rare”. Wow…super strict So I just stuck with medium ~

Complimentary walnut salad

Nearly instantly, another waitress popped down three plates of walnut salad in front of us, which consisted of greens with a mustard vinaigrette topped with chopped walnuts. Great starter as it was tangy and crunchy ~ would love to have that vinaigrette on my salads again.

Complimentary Baguette

Service was super efficient here, once we finished our salads, the plates were immediately taken from our tables and plate full of freshly cute baguettes were placed in the middle of our table. Turns out the steak and fries was €27EUR ($35AUD) and the rest were complimentary

Plating the steaks and fries

I realised there was a small table right next to ours with little racks with candles underneath it, then a waitress came over and places a large plate of fries on top of one of the racks and steaks on the other and began plating them for us.

I’m not sure how the waitresses divided the steaks because Anonymous Sis wanted her steak well done, and they seemed to come from the same plate of steaks

I realised that they only gave us 4 to 5 slices of steak and we were all entitled to another serving, once we finished our first serving and unlimited refills for fries. Which I thought was actually quite reasonably priced for only €27EUR!

Steak with Café de Paris sauce and fries €27EUR ($35AUD)

It’s such a simple dish, perfectly grilled steak with this delicious butter sauce, which I later found out was called Café de Paris sauce or otherwise known as Paris butter. It’s a known to be a complex butter sauce and made from various ingredients such as chicken livers, fresh thyme, thyme flowers, full cream, white Dijon mustard, butter, water, salt and pepper. After being made the sauce is a yellowish brown colour, but when it melts on the hot plate its served on, it turns a pea-soup green colour

The Café de Paris sauce is quite unique, its has an extremely strong butter flavour as you would expect, you can also take the Dijon and and salt but I couldn’t pick up the chicken liver used ~ Either way it’s very delicious and addictive, we were definitely compelled to use the baguette to mop up any sauce left on our plates.

Chocolate Profiteroles with ice-cream filling €14EUR ($18AUD)

Thank gosh they had an extensive dessert menu and as soon as you walked in you were welcomed by a dessert trolley, sorry I didn’t take a picture of it ~ The lovely waitress recommended their most popular dessert the chocolate profiteroles with an vanilla ice-cream filling topped with chocolate sauce and flaked almonds. I could see why it was their popular desserts, it was delectable! The profiteroles still had a slight crispiness to it and when biting into it vanilla ice-cream will gently ooze out. While the chocolate sauce was not overly sweet and made from dark chocolate which complimented it very well. Highly recommend you ordering this if you go to Le Relais de L’Entrecote!

Tarte au Citron €9EUR($11.60AUD)

Anonymous Sis wanted to only get one dessert, she obviously got shot down by multiple death stares from me I then chose a rather light and refreshing dessert, Tarte au Citron or better known as Lemon Tarts in the English speaking world ~ The lemon filling was really running and appeared more like a lemon curd in a sweet short crust pastry case. Even though it was different to what I expected it was still lovely!

I have never had a dining experience like I did at Le Relais de L’Entrecote Where there’s only one item on the menu! But I really enjoyed the steak and that addictive  Café de Paris sauce, I found a very similar recipe in Valli Little’s cookbook so I can’t wait to try making it at home ourselves ~ I definitely would recommend you going trying out Le Relais de L’Entrecote if you’re in Paris, just get there early to avoid long queues, don’t ask for a menu and remember to ALWAYS order dessert

Le Relais de L’Entrecote
271 Boulevard Pereire
75017 Paris, France
PH:+33 1 45 74 27 97

Dear Readers, do you get post-holiday blues? Sighhh even though I’ve been back in Melbourne for about 3 weeks, have gone back to work and everything is slowly reverting back to ‘normal’…I can’t help but feel a little sad that my holidays have ended Whenever I miss my holidays I go back through my photos because the somehow comfort me, that’s why I realised…more than 80% of my photos are of food and mainly photos of dessert

The Steakhouse Winebar + Grill at Intercontinental Hotel

I then realised I hadn’t blogged about the Giant Matcha Fondant I had at The Steakhouse Winebar + Grill I first saw the picture of the gigantic matcha fondant from Chocolate Mui Mui’s Instagram (she’s a food blogger based in HK and like me LOVES desserts ) I immediately left her a message and told her to take me there as soon as I landed in HK!

A couple of days after I arrived, I gathered a few blogging friends HK Epicurus, Yoni and Sai and off went to The Steakhouse for desserts. As the name of the restaurant suggests, its steakhouse on the basement level of the Intercontinental Hotel, however, on the side, they have a bar area where it’s quieter and customers can sit down have a drink and order DESSERTS

Matcha Fondant $280HKD ($35AUD) +10% service charge

This is the Giant Matcha Fondant! It’s actually much bigger in real life than it appears in this photo ~ The chef had trouble making the fondant though something about it breaking when they were trying to remove it from the cake tin and the waitress said that they weren’t able to make another one. But after some persuasion and I may have yelled out “But I came all the way from Melbourne just to try this!” the chef tried again and it worked YAY!

Chocolate Mui Mui cutting it professionally

Now time for that MONEY shot where the lava oozes out! We left this important task to the very capable hands of Chocolate Mui Mui who has had this a couple of times already ~ She very gently cut a tiny piece out and immediately green goodness seeps out.

I love this picture Even seeing it makes me want to eat it all over again! The matcha fondant is also topped with a red bean ice-ceam. In terms of flavour and texture, the outer sponge cake has a strong matcha flavour which wasn’t over powering or too bitter. While the filing was a mixture of white chocolate and matcha powder, it was sweet with notes of matcha. When combined with the red bean ice-cream, I think I have officially gone to matcha heaven!

Chocolate Brownie $280HKD ($35AUD) + 10% service charge

We couldn’t leave with just one dessert ~ So we tried the Chocolate Brownie as well. It seems like all desserts here are super sized hahaha the chocolate brownie was so big, it was pretty much looked like a cake. The brownie topped with hot chocolate sauce, vanilla ice-cream and candied pecans.

Unfortunately, we were not as impressed with this dessert, the chocolate brownie itself was very dry and crumbly in texture. I prefer my brownies to be super moist and fudgey. it would’ve been much better if there was more chocolate sauce and caramel sauce to accompany with it

The matcha fondant was so good, I actually went back a couple of days later with another lot of friends hahaha

Once again the Giant Matcha Fondant

Still just as delicious! I have actually made it my New Years resolution to try and make this at home, so if you have any hints or tips please let me know

Mocha Alaska $280HKD ($35AUD) + 10% service charge

This time I convinced my other friends to try the Bombe Alaska ~ I didn’t get a chance to take a photo on my camera, so apologies for the bad iPhone quality photo. Underneath the sweet merengue that was lit on fire in front of us, it had coffee ice-cream, chocolate ice-cream and a chocolate sauce accompanied with a Tia Maria sauce on the side. I really liked the coffee and chocolate ice-cream, while I found the chocolate sponge to be a little dry again but the Tia Maria sauce helped.

I don’t think I need to do anymore persuading  Trust me if you like matcha flavoured desserts you will LOVE the matcha fondant so what are you waiting for Go try it out if you’re in HK and if you’re going definitely put it on your list!!!

The Steakhouse Winebar + Grill 
18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon, Hong Kong
PH:(+852) 2721 1211

Dearest loveliest Readers have you ever made pizza from scratch at home before? I sure love pizza especially those with a thin crust and baked in a wood fire ovens with that smokey flavour. Anyhow, I got an email from Julia from TinkPR a couple of weeks ago asking if I’d be interested in learning how to make pizza from scratch and also enter a pizza competition with some other food bloggers?!?

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it at first…I mean what do I know about pizza making? Turns out that all my closest and dearest food blogging friends were going – Ash, Thanh, Shellie, Sabrina and Scott, Lianne and Cherrie! It’s been a while since we’ve all caught up so it was going to be like a little reunion hehe ~

Julia and Chef Emile

The event was held at the Grosvenor Hotel in St Kilda East, I haven’t heard of it before, but was surprised that it was such a modern and spacious restaurant on a quiet street. We all gathered up at 6:30pm where we got to meet Julia and Chef Emile  which told us the run down and the most importantly the rules for the competition and that was ‘have fun and play fair!’

Chicken liver pate and antipasto

The Grosvenor Hotel was very kind and gave us some nibbles to start our night off, starting with the super smooth and addictive chicken liver parfait which was a Marco Pierre White recipe and their chicken arancini balls with what I think was aioli ~

Chicken Arancini

Then it was these hand cut chips that takes 3 days to make! These were seriously one of the best chips I have had! Normally I’m not a chip person lol I can resist the fried goodness but not for these chips, no matter how long you left them they were still crispy! And pair them up with the Bernnaise sauce yes please!

Hand Cut Chips

After some delicious nibbles and drinks, it was GAME ON! The actual pizza making time ~ we were led into the back of the kitchen to start making our own pizza dough from scratch. We were all given some 00 flour, fresh yeast, room temperature water and olive oil. Stefano the pizza making guru started instructing us, starting by mixing the yeast and waster together and then sprinkling the salt over the flour and slowly forming a dough. Now this was the easy bit…the hard bit was the kneading it!

Pizza Making

Stefano teaching us

It took a very long time and lots of assistance from Stefano and Emile to form this perfect looking pizza dough My hands felt like they were going to fall off!

My pizza dough

We took it in turns to make the pizzas, first up was Shellie with her Banhmigeddon pizza which had her homemade Vietnamese chicken and Sriracha sauce. That chicken is SO damn addictive! Then Thanh also bought in some special ingredients and made a Kaarage chicken pizza with roast capsicums and rocket on TOP so it didn’t burn in the oven hahaha. Ashely also bought some homemade ingredients and that was BAKKWA and zucchini on her gluten-free pizza ~ the base was amazing couldn’t even tell it was GF I could already tell competition was gonna be TOUGH!

Shellie, Thanh and Ashley’s pizzas

Next lot of savoury pizzas were from Sabrina and Scott competing with each other as they’re from the same blog Brunch Addict Scott made a vegetarian pizza with fennel and caramelized onions while Sabrina topped her pizza with lamb, some special cheese which I can’t remember the name of and Moroccan spices ~

Scott and Sabrina’s pizza

Now to the battle of the dessert queens! I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance making a savoury pizza, so definitely sticking with a sweet one. But I was up again Cherrie who is known for her amazing desserts on her blog and OMG Lianne who is like the domestic goddess! Cherrie’s pizza was a sweet and savoury combination of bacon, banana and dulce de leche!

Lianne’s ‘Banana Nut Cracker’ Pizza

While Lianne’s ‘Banana Nut Cracker’ was hard to resist too with a butterscotch base, sliced bananas, flaked almond, almond crunch, walnuts and last but not least cinnamon sugar! Okay…we’re competitors but this was so damn good!

My “Sweet Attack” Pizza

Okay, finally my turn with my ‘Sweet Attack’ pizza hahaha I named it ‘Sweet Attack’ because I knew it was going to be a sugar and sweet overload and not everyone could handle my pizza! I had a THICK dulce de leche base (swear I used nearly half a bowl), dollops of fresh Italian Nutella, flaked almonds and almond crumble to give it some texture and finished it all off with super sweet and crunchy honeycomb!

I know it’s super sweet and not everyone can stomach it but at the same time lol I LOVE IT Yes I am bias hahaha either way it was my perfect sweet pizza!

Julia announcing the winners

It was actually quite nerve wrecking when Julia and Emile stepped out to deliberate hahaha reminds me of Masterchef and how we’re being judged ~ Finally the results were out! *DRUM ROLLS* Shellie and I tied, we were both the highest!!! WOO HOO *HIGH FIVE*! Lianne got second place and Cherrie was third! YAY! Super happy

Our Pizza On The Menu

The competition hasn’t ended though! The top 3 pizzas are going on the Grosvenors special menu and the pizza that gets the most votes on Facebook and in the restaurant will remain on the menu for a MONTH and the blogger can go back and eat as many pizzas for FREE

Grosvenor Facebook Page

Now my Dearest most supportive Readers, can I PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask you to vote for me It’s super simple, you just go to the Grosvenor Facebook page and find the picture of my pizza and press ‘Like’ and that’s it!!! And if you’re in Melbourne please go try out my pizza it’s on the menu for two weeks! Every pizza ordered is also counted as a VOTE

No matter who wins this was such an amazing event We all had so so so much fun! Would like to thank Emile, Stefano and Julia for organising this event and inviting me!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet attended this event as a guest of Grosvenor Hotel and TinkPR

Like any other couple, Mr Bao and I are constantly bickering, and one of the most common topics we argue about is ‘Where to have dinner?’ Even though I have an ever growing ‘To Eat’ list, we still argue where to go. I want Korean, He wants Japanese, I want Italian He wants French, we never seem to want the same thing!

This happened last Saturday, and after half an hour of bickering, I said ‘That’s it we’re going to Rockwell and Sons for burger, Julie said it’s good!’. Mr Bao’s face scrunched up in a bun, knew that my decision was final ~

Mr Bao’s Beer cocktail (forgot name and price sorry)

I thought traffic was going to be worse, but it only took us approximately 20 minutes to drive from Doncaster to Collingwood. We were very lucky and immediately found parking in front of Rockwell and Sons on the busy Smiths St. It was rather quiet being a Saturday night with only a few tables seated with people and the rest were empty.

Kinkawooka Mussels, Kaiserfieisch, Corn, Jalapenos, Spring Onions $19AUD

Mr Bao and I got a nice table in the back facing the kitchen, we had a look at the menu and very quickly decided what we wanted. Starting with the mussels in a broth and small pieces of Kaiserfieisch (a type of hame), corn, jalapenos and spring onions. I found the mussels to be quite small in size and would have been nicer if they were bigger, but nonetheless still very tasty. However, but we found the broth was rather salty so we didn’t really have much of it.

Double Patty Smash Burger $10AUD

Rockwell and Sons is known for their burger and sandwiches, so Mr Bao chose the Double Patty Smash Burger to be his main. It’s a seeded bun with a thick patty topped with Kraft Special sauced and a thick layer of cheese. Seriously no joke, it tasted like a Mac Donald’s Big Mac burger because of the sauce but SO much BETTER! The patty was juicy and bun was soft

Only compliant about the burger was the size, it was a little small for Mr Bao while I thought it was a perfect size for my tummy ~ Mr Bao loved this burger so so so much he ordered another one to take home with him and had it the next day for BREAKFAST!!! Don’t ask…he’s weird… who eats burgers for breakfast? >_<

Pressed Rib Sandwich $12AUD

I opted for the Pressed Rib Sandwich with BBQ Sauce, dill, fennel and onion. The sandwich had a soft bun and the BBQ sauce made it very flavoursome and the pressed rib was soft but was a little annoying when it stuck between our teeth hehe ~ Even though, this was nice, I think we both prefer the Double Patty Smash Burger

I’ve seen these onion rings from Catherine’s blog post, and knew I had to order them. They did not disappoint, these were probably one of the crunchiest and delicious onion rings I’ve had in a long time ~ they were not at all oily and that Dr Pepper BBQ Sauce was addictive! Too bad I only had two…before Mr Bao scoffs the rest! Next time I’m ordering a whole plate for myself!

Hickory Smoked Onion Rings, Dr. Pepper BBQ Sauce $7AUD

Ending our meal with you know what lol desserts! They had two options on the menu this buttermilk panna cotta and a chocolate oil cake, it was a rather warm night, so we chose the panna cotta. The buttermilk panna cotta came with treacle roasted peaches which were sticky sweet and buttermilk granita, flavours of this dessert was good especially with the buttermilk granita, first time I’ve tried it. But I found the panna cotta itself slightly firm and wasn’t as wobbly and smooth as it could have been.

Buttermilk Panna Cotta, treacle Roasted Peaches, Buttermilk Granita $11AUD

I think Mr Bao definitely enjoyed Rockwell and Sons more than I did and declared “Its now my new favourite place for burgers!” See I knew he’d like it! Don’t get why he always argues with me, when clearly I’m always CORRECT But I do agree burgers here are delicious and most importantly it’s very reasonably priced ~ definitely a good place to chill out with friends on a Friday night over burgers, onion rings and beer

PS. These photos were taken from the hand-me-down DSLR camera my Brother-In-Law gave me for my birthday Hope they’re okay! I’m still learning how to use it hehe ~

When I was growing up, I couldn’t tell the difference between mussels and oysters I knew they tasted different and had a different texture, but somehow, I’d always call ‘oysters’ mussels and vice versa. It wasn’t until I was about 10 years old, when I finally got them right!

Léon de Bruxelles

Win Win has always been a fan of seafood and has always raved on about the seafood in France and how it’s so delicious. She’s recommended Léon de Bruxelles a Belgian restaurant which specialises in Mussels I later found out that they’re a chain restaurant and have over 61 restaurants across France, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding one near you ~

Prices were also quite reasonable as you can see, you can get a three course meal for only €17.60 so about $22.65AUD ~ that’s quite cheap considering it’s generally more expensive when ordering seafood dishes in Melbourne.

Retro interior ~

Léon de Bruxelles has been around in Paris for a long time where the first store opened in 1989, you can  tell it was established in the 80s with the retro interior with a brown and green theme. We’ve had some issues communicating with our very limited French hahaha so we were relieved when the friendly waitress could speak English.

Complimentary Pretzels

She gave us the menu and also placed a small bowl of pretzels in front of us ~ I thought pretzels were a Germany speciality, so found it slightly strange Funny enough Anonymous Sis absolutely hates  pretzels, she wont even try putting one in her mouth lol I’m not sure why she hates them so much and I bet she’s forgotten why she hates them

Small Goat Cheese salad part of set menu  €21 ($26.85AUD)

We got two set menus to share between the three of us, which all include a starter, main and dessert Starting with the small goat cheese salad, was fresh but the goats cheese was very pungent and a bit too much for us. So we left most of it on the plate >_<

Shrimp Croquette Salad part of set menu €21($28.86AUD)

While the shrimp croquette salad was much nicer, it had an extremely light batter, crispy yet not greasy delicious Too bad there were only two pieces hehe wanted more of of these croquettes!

Seafood Style Mussels part of set menu  €21($28.86AUD)

There were a lot of options for our main dishes, the obvious were mussels in various styles, steak, roast chicken and even salmon steaks Win Win chose the Seafood Style Mussels as that was the one she always gets and loves the sauce. I was really impressed when the waitress placed the mussels on our table, it was such a large serving for €21! Definitely more than enough for the 3 of us ~ It smelt so good the salty smell from the mussels and the prawns! I now understand why Win Win loves the sauce so much it was like a rich white wine sauce infused with garlic! The mussels were also quite big, I rather eat mussels that are so fat and juicy in Melbourne

Freshly cut baguette

Thank gosh for the baguette we were able to use it to soak up all that delicious sauce

Sirloin Steak 220grams part of set lunch €21($28.86AUD)

Don’t know why Win Win also wanted to try the steak, lol I thought she only wanted seafood…it’s been 2 years since she was pregnant but I swear she still has food cravings like a pregnant lady Disappointingly this steak was very overcooked and even though it had a nice wood fire flavour, it had a very tough texture and rather chewy. There were unlimited refills on chips and though they were crispy it was very bland like it wasn’t salted at all.

Waffle with chocolate sauce part of set menu €21($28.86AUD)

We were at a Belgian restaurant after all, couldn’t leave without ordering some waffles! The waffle was freshly made, super hot and so light, not at all doughy Went perfectly with the dark rich chocolate sauce, I think it just needed some vanilla ice-cream and then it would have been perfect!

Crème brûlée part of set menu €21($28.86AUD)

I then chose the Crème brûlée to celebrate the fact that I was in Paris hahaha I needed a French dessert to end this wonderful meal. I love that ‘cracking’ sound it makes when the spoon cracks the brulee topping which was deliciate and not too thick. While the custard was smooth, eggy with a delicious vanilla flavour YUM!

We were so happy with the mussels we actually went back a couple of days later for a second round of mussels  Léon de Bruxelles is definitely an affordable and convenient restaurant to have a decent seafood meal when you’re in Paris, I’d suggest sticking to ordering seafood and avoid the other meat dishes ~

Léon de Bruxelles
Porte Maillot
95 Bd Gouivion Saint Cyr
75017 Paris
PH: 01 55 37 95 30 

If you’re currently in Melbourne You may know that the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF) is on and running from the 1st to the 17th of March ~ Even though I love eating out and experiencing the Melbourne food scene, I’ve never really gone to any events and with Mr Bao working so much lately, I didn’t want to book into any events and have to drag him there ~ But I was very lucky and Libby (The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar) invited me to be her guest at the World’s Largest Outdoor Yum Cha event held by Chan’s Yum Cha at the Treasury Gardens last Saturday (2nd March).

Chan’s Yum Cha at Treasury Garden

It was the perfect day to hold this event at the Treasury Gardens wasn’t too hot but around the mid to high 20 degree and with lots of trees around to provide shade.

Apart from the rows of tables for patrons participating in the World’s Largest Outdoor Yum Cha, there were also marquees outside providing face painting for the kids, a photobooth and the The Teo Chew Association was also there to play songs using traditional Chinese instruments throughout the event. It reminded me of Chinese New Year festivals we had a couple of weeks ago in the City ~

Lion Dancing

They even organised Lion Dances to be performed throughout the yum cha ~ But to be completely honest with you…I am terrified of lion dances lol I’ve never liked them growing up as a child and use to hide behind my parents Now that I’m an adult…they are tolerable but I still DISLIKE them and prefer if they didn’t come near me hahaha

Attempting to beat the Guinness World Record

As the name of this event suggests, it was an attempt to break the Guinness World Record of the largest outdoor yum cha The record before was 500 people, this time there were 800 tickets sold so as long as we had more than 500 people seated and eating at least 2 dim sums, we’ll beat the record! Doesn’t sound too hard

All I could see were rows and rows of tables and so many people seated at the tables! There was definitely more than 500 of us!

Doing it right

Even though this was an outdoor event with so many people, Chan’s Yum Cha was trying to do it right, with chopsticks and a tea cup for tea There were no forks, spoons or knives in sight, so for those who weren’t good with chopsticks they’d have to practice ~ Thank gosh they have the instructions in front of us hehe

5 Course Yum Cha

It was going to be a 5 course yum cha with a variety of dim sims, dumplings, buns and dessert Tickets to this event was $20 per person, which I thought was definitely good value considering the amount of food we were getting ~

Prawn Hargow

First course was the most traditional and popular prawn hargow ~ which I’m sure most of you would have heard of and tried. I was quite impressed with the flavour of the filling and the crunchiness from the shredded bamboo inside, however, I would’ve liked it more if the dumpling skin wasn’t as dry and sticky. But I guess this can’t be helped as the kitchen was trying to pump out dumpling for 800 people!

Sesame Prawn Toast

I haven’t had Sesame Prawn Toast for the longest time! My parents never liked it and said we should avoid ordering too much fried food when going to yum cha. But I remember we would order it for my Caucasian friends when we went to yum cha together ~ I was quite impressed with these as it was freshly fried and had a good amount of prawn paste spread over the toast, I also liked the toasted sesame flavour!

Ginger Prawn and Shiitake Dumpling

Third course was the Ginger Prawn dumpling which had a yellow wrapper, it reminded me more of a HK style wonton and even though I liked the flavours, I found them quite similar to the prawn hargow and my throat was slightly ticklish after eating it. So I suggest that there was some MSG in it I quite liked the Shiitake Dumplings though, the filling the Shiitake mushrooms and also bamboo shoots and carrots, I’m pretty sure this was the only vegetarian dumpling too

BBQ Pork Bun

I’m a fan of buns Love their steamed fluffy texture ~ These BBQ Pork Buns had a good sweet Charsiu (BBQ Pork) filling, however, Libby found it a little too sweet not me But we didn’t really like the buns itself, it had a very doughy and dense texture and kind of stuck to our teeth >_< Once again I’m not sure if it’s because of the lack of time the kitchen had to prepare these, I think they would have tasted better if they were steamed for a couple of minutes longer.

Banana Fritter with Vanilla Ice-cream

Last course and of course most important was dessert, which was Lady finger banana fritters with vanilla ice-cream. I was worried that the kitchen wouldn’t be able to fry these fritters in time and when it reached our table it would be soggy, but it was actually still quite fresh and hot when the waiter placed it on our table It really brought back childhood memories eating this dessert, as my parents would order it for me whenever we went out for dinner ~

Overall, I thought this was a great event and WE BROKE THE RECORD Out of the 800 tickets sold there were 726 or so people seated and had yum cha in the outdoor! WOO HOO! I’ve never helped break a guinness world record before hehe YAY! Also if you’re interested in trying you can buy Chan’s Yum Cha dumplings at large supermarkets and Costco in Melbourne ~ This isn’t the first time I’ve had Chan’s Yum Cha hehe because Mr Bao and I usually stock up on a few yum cha items and leave them in our freezer because they’re so convenient when we’re too lazy to cook dinner or go out

Once again would like to thank Libby for inviting me to such a fun event ~ and hopefully  one day I’ll even break or create my own Guinness World Record

Daisy@Nevertoosweet attended this event as a guest of Libby (The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar) 

I have a love/hate relationship with bread I love it…but then I get all carb-loaded and slightly bloated if I eat too much, but nonetheless, I love my bread! Anyhow, Kathryn from Left PR contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I would be interested in developing a recipe for Bakers Delight and their recipe bank ~ rules were simply, use any Bakers Delight product and make a recipe

Honey Toast Box with toppings

I was so worried whether or not I would be able to come up with a recipe, because generally I just eat my bread as a compliment with Nutella, condensed milk or jam ~ So after accepting the challenge, I gave it a good think…’What can I do with bread…what type of bread….Toast….TOAST BOX’! Then I thought of the honey toast box I’ve had in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Basically it’s a block of bread, hollowed, covered in honey and butter and then toasted after that what you do with it is entirely up to you I love topping it with loads of ice-cream, sauce and nuts!

Recipe – Honey Toast Box an original recipe by Daisy@Nevertoosweet

Yield – One small box 

Ingredients
43 grams (3 tablespoon) Unsalted Butter
1 small Baker Delight White Loaf bread
2 tablespoon of honey

Additional:
Ice-cream of your choice
Toppings (nuts, chocolate chips, fruit) of your choice

Ingredients

Method
1) Preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F
2) Using a serrated knife slice approximately 1/4 of the loaf off, to make it more of a ‘square’ shape.

3) Carefully make a slit on the base of box, then begin hollowing the bread box by leaving a 1cm around the edges along the base of the box. Gently remove the slices of bread from the centre.

4) Place butter and honey in a microwaveable bowl and heat until melted and mix to combine.

5) Brush honey and butter mixture all over the toast boast including the insides, you can let it soak in a little before reapplying to make the bread sweeter. Do the same to the bread sticks.

Be careful really hot mixture

6) Place bread sticks and bread box onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and place into the oven for 10 to 13 minutes. Turn the bread sticks every 3 to 5 minutes to prevent burning.

Before

After

7) Once the bread has toasted remove from oven and let it cool slightly, before slowly replacing the bread sticks back into the toast box.

Notes
- You can purchase a whole loaf of white bread from your local Bakers Delight or bakeries, simply ask them not to slice it.
- You can use stale bread, will make slicing even easier
- Can omit the honey and make a savoury toast box

By now you should be able to smell the delicious toast box It’s complete! Now let you imagination go wild! You can top the honey toast box with ANYTHING absolutely anything ~

Honey Toaste Box with honeycomb butterscotch ice-cream chocolate sauce and chopped rocky road

I chose to top my honey toast box with Honeycomb and Butterscotch ice-cream, chocolate sauce and chopped rocky road! It was AMAZING if I can say so myself

Honey Toast Box with vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel sauce and almonds

I made another one and this time it was topped with vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel sauce and almonds. I think I liked this one a bit more because I love salted caramel hehe

There you go this is my recipe that I am submitting for the Baker Delight Recipe Bank ~ I really hope you like it and will try making this at home sometime! It’s super easy, great way to use up stale bread and makes a very indulgent and naughty brunch or dessert

My Dearest Readers, I have a complaint to make today and that is…I am sick of my family and friends in HK always asking and telling me “How do you find living and working in Melbourne? Are you really bored? Nothing to do at night? So boring that’s why I like HK and Asia more”. *ROAR* Stop ask me these silly questions Because you are all wrong! Melbourne is a fantastic city, I’ve grown up here and I LOVE IT! Don’t forget we have been labelled as the most ‘Liveable city in the world’. Sorry for being so narky but it really bothers me when they keep asking me these questions…even though I understand why they would think that…shopping centres here only close late on Thursday and Fridays, restaurants generally close at 10pm and yes it’s hard to get a good decent bowl of wonton noodles at 2am hahaha but still there is so much more Melbourne has to offer especially the FOOD CULTURE

Little Hunter

I don’t think I will ever get bored of the food scene here in Melbourne, because there is always something new for me to try and I seriously can barely keep up ~ I try my very best to try new places every time I go out to hopefully get through my ‘To-Eat’ list A new restaurant called the ‘Little Hunter’ recently caught my attention and I have been waiting patiently for it to open, it attracted me for a couple of reasons, firstly because of the Chef Gavin Baker and also because of the Pastry Chefs Shaun Quades and Ross Magnaye (who I personally know of) ~ Gavin Baker is an American chef who has an impressive resume such as being the Sous Chef at The Fat Duck in London as I’m sure most of you will know is Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant. Shaun Quades is an amazing pastry chef who has worked at Quay (Sydney). On the other hand, Ross was previously working for Darren Purchese at Burch and Purchese in Melbourne and we have met through a charity event and have kept in touch since But that’s not it! There’s one more person behind Little Hunter and that is Pete Evans the chef who is currently the host and judge on the Australian show ‘My Kitchen Rules’

After reading all this, I simply knew I had to make a booking and try it out as soon as possible They opened a couple of weeks ago but I wanted for about a fortnight before going as I don’t particularly going to restaurants whenthey first open hehe I went to Little Hunter with Kirk and Ashley (I’m So Hungree), it was slightly weird combination as they have only met once at another dessert event but good food is able to connect everyone together.

Little ducky on the wine glass

We got there pretty early on a Tuesday night at around 6:30pm, there was only another table dining there. I knew the restaurant was going to be dark as it was in the basement…but my worse nightmare happened when I realised they used super orange tungsten lights…meaning my photos weren’t going to turn out very nice so my apologies for the ugly photos, I tried my best to edit them ~

Complimentary bread with chicken skin butter

Being avid foodies all three of us had already had a look at the menu and also consulted Catherine (Petit Miamx) who dined here the week before we were pretty much ready to order immediately, but we started off with the complimentary bread which was warm and soft infused with dried herbs and also chicken skin butter. Let me repeat that chicken skin butter! I repeated it twice when the waiter told us because hahaha I have never thought of putting chicken skin into butter that’s so oily and rich! I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it…but once spread on the bread, we all looked at each other and smiled We really liked it! It wasn’t just chicken skin mixed into the butter, it was like roast chicken skin, tasted more like really thick gravy with a buttery flavoury.

Pork crackings, paprika, white cheddar apple sauce $6

The pork cracking was an immediate hit for us It was super crispy and so loud that the table sitting across us turned around and looked at us while we were munching on the cracking that was seasoned with paprika and white cheddar, I also liked the sweetness from the apple sauce.

Cured Kingfish seasoned roe, roasted peppers, bay oil $14

Then it was Kirk’s favourite lol cured Kingfish…he basically orders this whenever it’s on the menu, I have to agree though it was very nice with the fish being fresh and complemented very well by the huge salmon roe and roasted peppers ~ Mr Bao said he wants to come and try just because of the salmon roe lol

“Beef on Toast” chicken liver parfait, dressed chives $15

I’m not really sure why it’s called “Beef on Toast’ but I guess it’s because it had some very thin slices of beef at the bottom and then topped with chicken liver parfait and chives. Ash can be named the ‘Queen of Chicken Liver Parfait’ and she approved this.

Roasted Yams chimichurri $7

As soon as I saw this on the menu, I immediately wanted to order it because I love all things ‘Yam/Taro’ but turns out they were sweet potatoes lol I tweeted Little Hunter and they replied saying that it’s because Chef Gavin is American and apparently that’s what they call it there. It was such a simple side but I loved how soft they were and gave it an Argentinian twist with the chimichurri.

Chatham Island Blue Cod native sea grasses, leeks, brown butter $32

Fish isn’t usually what I order when I go out for dinner, but a couple of days ago I had a very meaty Argentinian meal so I felt like something a bit lighter ~ I ordered the Blue Cod with native sea grasses and leeks as my main. I was very impressed as the blue cod had a very well seasoned and crispy fish skin while the flesh as still soft.

Blackmore Wagyu 9+ Flank avocado, cajun flavours $44

Kirk is definitely a huge meat-eater and as usual got the steak ~ it was a Wagyu 9+ Flank cut which is more of a cheaper cut, but we were all impressed by the quality of the meat, it was soft and had good flavour. It was slightly unusual to have an avocado as the side, but it surprisingly worked and now I’m inspired to do that at home next time, given that I find a good avocado that’s not too ripe or had

Veal Sweetbreads sherried veal jus, parsnip, onions $26

Ash ordered the Veal Sweetbreads with sherried veal jus, parsnip and onions, I’ve had sweetbreads before but didn’t know that it was called the thymus/pancreas area of a cow hehe ~ It was fried in a soft batter and had a very velvety texture. I was also addicted to that white mash not sure if it was parsnip or potato, it was so smooth and creamy!

Double Chocolate Mousse Noble one reduction, cacao nib brittle $14

Thank gosh I was dining with people who had a sweet tooth, well kind of obvious since Kirk is a pastry chef and Ash definitely likes her sweets YAY! There were 4 desserts on the menu but we were so full that we only got 3! Gosh fail hehe oh wells doesn’t matter another excuse to go back Starting with the Double Chocolate Mousse with Noble one reduction and cacao nib brittle. I don’t think I’ve had Noble One wine before but know it’s a sweet white wine ~ and the reduction was PHENOMENAL! It didn’t say but I’m pretty sure it was a white chocolate mouse base with the second layer was dark chocolate, it was smooth and rich. While the cacao nibs gave it a bittersweet flavour and crunchy texture ~

Frangipane meringue, passionfruit curd, whole peach sorbet $15

I saw this dessert on Catherine’s post and was intrigued because the dessert looked like an egg hehe but wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because I find frangipanes can sometimes be too moist or too dry. I was wrong! The frangipane had the perfect texture with crushed pistachios throughout it totally yum! I also liked the smooth merengue with the passionfruit curd and surprised it was a nice combination with the white peach sorbet and toasted coconut Highly recommend this dessert!

Fresh yoghurt, apple pie jam, basil granita, nugmeg $12

It was so hard to take a photo of this dessert! Sorry for the blurriness! It was interesting to see a fresh yoghurt dessert on the menu but was liked the idea of the apple pie jam. When I first tasted it, I wasn’t too sure if I liked it because the basil granita was too strong for me, but when I tried it again and made sure I had all the components it was actually quite nice especially with the tanginess of the fresh yoghurt and sweetness from the apple pie jam ~

I would described my first experience at Little Hunter as very pleasant Staff were friendly and helpful, even willing to help us split bills. Food was wonderful, everything was very well thought through and flavour combinations were good ~ The winner for me would have to be the blue cod and wagyu and surprising the roasted yams too! I don’t think I need to say much about desserts because they were all great especially the frangipane merengue! Little Hunter is definitely a great newcomer to the Melbourne food scene and I’m looking forward to returning with Mr Bao so he can also try it out

I think it would be a crime if I went to Paris and didn’t try the macarons from Ladurée and Pierre Hermé I have heard so much about these two patisseries and even though I have tried macarons from Laduree quite a few times as they recently opened in Sydney and Hong Kong. It’s the first time I tried macarons from Pierre Hermé so excited! Just wanted to do a little comparison between the two macarons masters

Laduree in Paris

Starting with Ladurée, I’ve had their macarons from their store in New York, Sydney and also Hong Kong. Even though their macarons are quite delicious, I found there to be inconsistencies with the texture of their macarons.

Laduree macarons from NYC

Laduree from NYC

Like the macarons, I had in New York to be more on the softer side, with a softer shell and the ganache in the middle was also creamier. I really enjoyed these macarons from the Laduree in NYC, I think they’re the best ones I’ve had even better than Paris

Laduree macarons from NYC

I was very excited when Laduree opened in Sydney and when I found the chance to visit I was over the moon But then I realised the macarons were very expensive $3.2 take away and $4 dine in wow…

Laduree prices in Sydney

But then I found these macarons in Sydney to have a much tougher texture and very very chewy. I have heard that this may be because, they freeze the macarons and import them from Switzerland. I’m not sure if this will change the consistency, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Even though flavours were fantastic especially their salted caramel and pistachio macaron.

Laduree in Sydney

I’m not sure if this will change the consistency, but I wasn’t too impressed with them. Even though flavours were still good especially their salted caramel and pistachio macaron. They are my all time favourite!

Laduree macarons from Sydney

I have heard from HK Epicurus that only the macarons in the Paris Laduree is actually made there, the rest are made from a factory in Switzerland and both HK Epicurus and Tina both agreed that their macarons are best in Paris. So I was quite excited to finally get to try the ‘real’ deal I actually didn’t get to try that many Laduree macarons this time, as I was going around too many patisseries hahaha but I did get to try a few when I visited their Laduree restaurant on Champs-Élysées.

Laduree macarons from Paris

My sisters and I tried these macarons as part of the Brunch set we had there, which I will blog about another time We could choose 3 macarons of our liking, so we got the salted caramel, chocolate and dark chocolate flavour. I immediately found a difference once again in the texture in the macarons, they were definitely softer and more delicate than the ones I got in both Sydney and HK. But they were slightly firmer than the ones in New York. In terms of flavours they were slightly sweeter and probably the best, I really liked their salted caramel it was sweet, salty and just heavenly! I suspect its the use of the French butter There wasn’t a vast difference between the chocolate and dark chocolate macaron, except one tasted slightly more bitter.

Pierre Herme in Paris

Now moving onto Pierre Hermé macarons, there are quite a few Pierre Hermé stores around Paris, but I failed and only got to their store in the Galaries Lafayette deparment store on our second last day. I was slightly disappointed as it was a rather small store with only macarons and other dry packaged goods such as chocolates.

Pierre Herme macarons

From memory I think Pierre Hermé had a more diverse range of flavours for their macarons and ones that I found most interesting was the chocolate and foie gras Yup I tried it and I’m not sure whether I like it or not lol it had a rich chocolate ganahe but then the foie gras flavour. The rest of the macarons I chose more traditional flavors such as dark chocolate, salted caramel, rose water and of course pistachio

I found flavours of the ganache simply too hard to resist, once again just like the macaron shell they had the perfect consistency and also balance of flavours. I think it is safe to declare ‘Pierre Hermé’ makes the best macarons I have tasted! Now I just wish I could take a whole cargo ship full of them back with me…and I really wished that they would last longer so Mr Bao could try Oh wells… I guess that’s just a good excuse and reason to go back to Paris don’t you like?

Pierre Herme Macarons

Clearly in this battle ‘Pierre Hermé’ has won just everything about them size, texture and flavour was all spot on! While Laduree had some good flavours, overall, I was quite disappointed by the ones I have had in Sydney and Paris and surprisingly found the ones in New York to be better. Now my lovely Readers I would like to ask have you tried Laduree and Pierre Hermé before? Which one do you like more?

Laduree 
75 Champs-Élysées 75008 Paris, France
PH: +33 1 40 75 08 75

Galeries Lafayette
40 boulevard Haussmann 75009 Paris
PH: +33 (0)1 43 54 47 77

I haven’t had a Guest post here at Never Too Sweet for quite a while, so I am very excited that someone very special has finally decided to make his debut and that is the one and only Mr Bao! Hahaha I have been asking and bugging him to do a guest post for me for the longest time, but he always declined…but finally he agreed He’s actually posting a savoury recipe which is also a first time for my blog ~ Hope you will enjoy this post!

PS. Please do not believe everything he says, because it’s not all true
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello everyone! It is my honour to guest post for Daisy here at Never Too Sweet, you may know me as Mr Bao, I am actually  the co-founder of this blog as I came up with the name “Never Too Sweet For Me”. Great name don’t you think? Would like to thank all the readers who have supported this blog and I hope you will continue supporting us.

HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

Photo courtesy of Lianne Thank you!

The reason why I decided to do this post is because, a couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a pot luck at Lianne’s, where we were asked to bring a dish, there were a lots of good dishes such as the Kong Ba Bao and sticky pork ribs…all the great food you name it!! As an international student, once in a while we miss home, having these Asian dishes inspired me to make our HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings.

I wonder how many of you are curious about why this dish is called “Swiss” Chicken Wings? Let me tell you a little story about Swiss Chicken Wings.  In 1860, there’s a HK style Western restaurant called Tai Ping Koon Restaurant (太平館餐廳).  The founder invented a sweet soy type of wings.  A tourist tried it and adored it.  He asked the waiter about the name of the dish.  The waiter’s reply was “Sweet Wings…”.  Due to confusion of Chinglish, the tourist mistaken it as “Swiss Wings”.  Therefore, the funny name has since lasted until the modern days.

Here I’d like to take this chance to share this recipe.  This recipe is super simple as I’m such a lazy person, it only took me about half an hour.   Meanwhile, I could go play my PS3 while the chicken is cooking =)

Preparation time: 10 mins     Cooking time: 30 mins   Serves: 4

Ingredients:
- 8-10 Chicken wings (full wings or middle wings), rinse and bloat dry with kitchen paper
- Half a bowl (small Chinese rice bowl, roughly 125 ml) soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons Shao Xing wine
- One big bulk of rock sugar (preference depending on sweetness)
- 3cm ginger, roughly chopped into 3-4 pieces
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 cup of water (may vary, just enough to cover all wings)
- Garnish: 1 stalk of spring onion chopped finely (optional)

Method:
- Boil chicken wings with cold water to remove fat and any impurities.  Drain well, bloat dry and set aside for use.
- Heat a large heavy based saucepan adding vegetable oil.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic until fragrant followed by the wings.  Stir fry the wings until the skin is slightly golden brown.
- Stir in all the ingredients, set to boil and cook for 10 mins.  Frequently turn the chicken wings to make sure they absorb as much soy mixture as possible (this step is very essential).
- Turn the heat to low.  Cover the saucepan and let the wings cook for another 20 mins.
- At this time, you may taste the mixture and see if more rock sugar or salt is needed.
- Cover the pan again and turn the heat up.  Let boil for another 3 mins.  This allows the final favour to be absorbed by the chicken wings.
- Turn the stove off and let the saucepan rest on the stove for 10 mins before serving.

So there you go my simple and delicious swiss chicken wings, I hope you will like it .  Finally of cause, I would like to specially thank the real founder of NTS for letting me to post this.  Cheers guys, you may see me haunting this blog very soon in the future again!

Hello everyone Do you remember a week or so ago I told you about the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival that is on right now? I really wasn’t intending to go to any events but after the World’s Largest Yum Cha event, I had so much fun, I thought it’ll be great to go to a few more ~ Every year during the festival many restaurants will participate by offering customers an “Express Lunch” menu for $40 dollars which includes 2 courses, a glass of wine and tea or coffee. This is a pretty good deal given that most of these restaurants are usually quite expensive with mains that cost $35 or more This is a great way to try some of the restaurants signature dishes at a lower price.

Gingerboy

There were plenty of restaurants to choose from but I found that most restaurants only offered the “Express Lunch” menu Monday to Friday and not many offered the weekend. This made it very difficult those working to try these “Express Lunches” as they often take at least 1.5 hours including travel time. I scanned down the list and given that I could only ‘sneak’ out for one or two lunches we had to make the right choice I gave Mr Bao a few options and I expected him to choose a French restaurant like PM24 but he wanted to try Gingerboy an Asian-fusion restaurant quite well-known in Melbourne

I was rushing from work and I made a booking for 1:30pm but was held up in a meeting and knew I wouldn’t get there till at least 1:45pm, so I called and told them. A girl picked up and said “That’s fine but the kitchen closes are 2pm it’s up to you”. I was devastated I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it there in time to order food and also eat…Mr Bao was very understanding and said he’s happy to do anything but said we should be able to get there before 2pm and asked me to call again. This time a man picked up and was very friendly and said “Oh no…our kitchen closes at 2:30pm that’s last order…so as long as you order before that it’s fine, besides we’re not going to kick you out just because the kitchen is closed” PHEW! Gingerboy was back on! I felt the first person I spoke to wasn’t very helpful >_<

The unnecessary pic of Mr Bao lol he was starving haha

We got to Gingerboy just before 2pm and was very lucky to find parking right in front of the restaurant ~ upon walking in we were greeted by a few waiting staff and then shown to our table in the back of the restaurant right in the corner. I’m not sure if tables were usually this placed this ‘close’ to each other but we felt rather cramped.

White Wine part of Express Lunch

Starting with a glass of wine white, I’m no expert but we found it to be a little dry and would have liked a lighter tasting wine to pair with the spicy food.

Grilled wagyu beef in la lot leaves with sour chilli vinegar

Wasting no time, we decided to get 1 entree, 2 mains and 1 dessert to share between us. Starting with the entree Grilled Wagyu beef in la lot leaves with sour chilli vinegar, they were like two little beef dumplings, which reminded up of the steamed beef balls you can get at Yum Cha. But the quality of the beef was definitely better and we liked the flavour of the Wagyu beef and the sour chilli vinegar. Mr Bao’s only compliant was they were quite small and we only had one each

Cone bay barramundi, lemongrass and ginger curry, coconut salad

There were 3 options for the plan a fish, pork and vegetarian I chose the barramundi with lemongrass and ginger curry topped with a coconut salad. I was quite impressed with the barramundi as it was very well cooked with a crispy skin very important to me ~ And the lemongrass and ginger curry tasted similar to the one we tried at Ezard, which is another restaurant from their group. I think all elements went very well with this dish but I think it would have been better if it came with some rice for the curry sauce and make it more filling.

Sweet and sour pork belly with peanut, cherry tomato and coriander salad

Mr Bao’s sweet and sour pork belly was rather small with only 4 to 5 pieces scattered on top of the cherry tomato and coriander salad. The pork belly had good flavours but we found it to be a little dry and not as moist as we would have liked, but I really liked the salad which was quite spicy and the lovely texture from the crushed peanuts

Steamed ginger pudding with palm sugar ice cream

There were two dessert options a ginger pudding and a tapioca fruit salad. We chose the ginger steamed pudding because we didn’t know that we could pay more and get the other dessert and the waitress wasn’t very patient… so we just got the one. I was really impressed with the steamed ginger pudding, it was soft and moist, however, I would have preferred a stronger ginger flavour. The palm sugar ice-cream and syrup was also another win ~ It was super sweet but wasn’t overbearing when paired with the pudding. Now I’m inspired to try and make this at home, I have the Gingerboy cookbook and hope the recipe is in there

Our first Express Lunch and Gingerboy experience was nice but neither of us really enjoyed it I’m sorry to those who like Gingerboy. For starters, staff at Gingerboy had a ‘lukewarm’ attitude especially the waitress who served our table was very impatient. Tea and coffee comes with our Express Lunch but it never came, even though we asked them about it twice. Eventually we decided to leave because I had to rush back to work. Food wise flavours were good but I’m not sure if it’s because it was an Express Lunch, portions were very small and I’m not saying this on behalf of Mr Bao (he was still staving ) hahaha I am saying this from a girl’s point of view. I think I could have easily finished an Entree and Main and will still have room for more food. After trying both Ezard and Gingerboy we think Teage Ezard is a very talented man but we have also came to the conclusion that we’re not fans of Asian-fusion and prefer more traditional dishes. Having said that though if you haven’t tried I think Gingerboy is still worth trying at least once

For us living in the Southern Hemisphere, we have officially entered into the Autumn season, weather should be cooling down and trees should be turning brown with leaves falling off…But that did NOT happened We’re half way through March but temperatures in Melbourne was still over 30 degrees Celsius and last week I parked my car under the sun for half and hour and when I returned…the themometer inside read a crazy 46.5 degrees!

Hot weather

I don’t do very well in the heat Give me cold winds and snow ANY DAY over the scorching sun. And because of the heatwave, I have been eating icy cold desserts every day sometimes twice! One of the new places Mr Bao and I checked out was Tuttu Premium Frozen Yoghurt & Desserts in Carlton. Even though I went primarily went to Tutto for the Froyo, I was also interested because they offered other desserts such as macarons and cupcakes

Cupcake and Macarons

Tutto wasn’t a self-serve froyo bar, there were pre-made parfaits with one or two flavours of froyo and then toppings that to match. Or you can pick your own froyo flavours and 3 toppings were $2.50.

Toppings

We decided to go DIY because Mr Bao is quite picky with the toppings. Ended up choosing the original and Tiramisu froyo topped with mango pearls, vanilla almonds and a Pocky chocolate stick.

Large Frozen Yoghurt $6.5 + 3 Toppings $2.5

The original frozen yoghurt had a good tang but not too sour and had a very similar texture to Cacao Green  for those who have visited you will know what I mean While the Tiramisu was also smooth with a good coffee hit to it, I think I still preferred the original as the tanginess didn’t really work with Tiramisu in my opinion ~ Toppings were nice but nothing too fancy, I just felt that they could have been a little more generous with the vanilla almonds, there were so little I couldn’t really see or taste them >_<

Red Velvet Regular cupcake $4

I think tried their Red Velvet cupcake which was rather nice, with a spongy and moist cupcake then topped with fluffy cream cheese frosting. If I wanted to be a cupcake-critic hehe I would say the cupcake was slightly dense and frosting could be sweeter. But overall, it was yummy

Mr Bao was quite full but I insisted in trying the macarons lol I don’t think Tutto make the macarons themselves but I’m not too sure who their stockists are. I was talking to Vien (We Dare Food) the other day and she suggested Cacao as they look the same, and I think she might be right hehe

Macaron $2.5 each

I picked my two favourite flavours, salted caramel and pistachio. The shells were more on the chewy side and I liked the pistachio macaron more as it had good flavours. While Mr Bao commented that the salted caramel filling needed a little bit more salt ~

I think Tutto Premium is a good addition to the Froyo community in Melbourne I also like how it closes quite late every night and not only on the weekends. Perfect for when you want to do a late night froyo run and can also grab a cupcake on your way out

Yo-Chi Frozen Yoghurt

Another Froyo store we went too was Yo-Chi in Balaclava I’ve been meaning to visit for the longest time, but it’s quite out of our way and when we dine around that area, I usually get dessert at the cafe or restaurant we’re going. But finally on the weekend, it was another 35 degree day we made it to Yo Chi ~ I’ve heard so many good things about it!

It was quite busy when we got there as everyone was trying to cool down with some froyo, I was super excited because Yo Chi was a self-serve frozen yoghurt bar, meaning you can try as many flavours and toppings as you want! LOL I felt like a child again.

The system is simple you start at the very end of the store, with all the froyo flavours, when we went they had – Original, Soy (Lactose and Gluten Free), Coconut, Chocolate, Hazelnut, Passion fruit and Mixed Berry. You pick what size you want – small, medium or large and off you go, put as much or as little froyo as you want into your paper bowl

LOL Mr Bao went a little crazy and tried 5 different flavours, original, chocolate, hazelnut, passion fruit and mixed berry I wanted coconut but then they ran out damn… now to the toppings.

Toppings – pearls, jellies and fruit

Toppings – Nuts, dried fruit and chocolate

I think Yo Chi probably has the largest variety of toppings compared to any other froyo stores in Melbourne.They had the usual nuts (almonds, hazelnuts) and fruit (strawberry, kiwifruit) but then they had some impressive toppings such as almond crumble, dried figs and most importantly whole pot of caramelized bananas! Not only that hot chocolate sauce and caramel sauce, seriously I’m in HEAVEN!

Caramelised banana

This is our creation with 5 different flavours of froyo topped with strawberry pearls, green tea jelly, almond crumble, dried figs, desccinted coconut AND caramelized bannaa It cost us a total of $12 because at Yo Chi you pay according to weight and they charge $2.80 per 100grams. I think it is reasonably priced and probably cheaper than Tutti Frutti  but with a lot more flavours and toppings to choose from.

Our finished product $12 ($2.80 per 100grams)

Mr Bao and I really liked Yo Chi! So much that I was tempted to go back and grab another frozen yoghurt when we finished it…but kind of felt guilty so we drove home instead Even though Yo Chi is kind of out of the way for us it’s worth the effort! As a matter of fact, I have already planned to come back to Yo Chi next week!

You have probably heard me complain again and again, that there aren’t enough good cafes around the Doncaster area where I like >_< We have plenty of Chinese restaurants and a great shopping centre but some how we just don’t have any decent cafes. That’s why I always get super excited when a new cafe opens up near our area. Miss Frank is the newest cafe to open up in the quiet streets of Surrey Hills, I found out about it from Winnie (Eat Play Shop) Instagram and immediately put it on my list.

Miss Frank

Julz and I visited Miss Frank on a very hot day, we arrived at Through Rd and quickly found parking across the cafe. Upon walking in, I was surprised to see that Miss Frank was a relatively big cafe taking over two stores with 2 large communal tables and other smaller tables.

We both liked the decor and ambience of Miss Frank, it was clean, simple and bright, we particularly liked the little hole in the table where the cutlery is placed and menus rolled up like newspapers ~ Along with the pretty bottle with coffee beans and a some flowers How much I wish I could keep our home so clean

Espresso Milkshake $6

Given that it was a super hot day, I couldn’t make myself order my usual ‘mocha’ so decided to go for something cold, was intrigued by their Espresso Milkshake because I haven’t had one before. I was quite impressed with the strong coffee flavour and thickness of the milkshake, I didn’t expect it to be so strong as it looked quite pale If you like coffee and milkshakes, you’ll definitely like this!

Latte $3.8

Can’t believe Julz still ordered a hot coffee, she stuck with her usual latte and commented that it was rather watery and wasn’t very strong. I’m not sure what roasters or coffee beans they use but I’d like to go back again to try their mocha

Julz and I studied the menu and wasn’t sure what to order, we found the menu a bit restricted for instance in the breakfast section, they had the oats and muesli items and a big breakfast. But they didn’t seem to have any eggs benedict or florentine items which are quite common for brunch. Instead they had a DIY option where you get eggs-of-your-choice and then you add the items you would like. However, we found that to be quite expensive making the dish to be over $20 as items like avocado were around $5.

Maplenut crunch cereal topped with fresh fruit with milk and yoghurt $9.5

Eventually, I chose the maple nut crunch cereal with fresh fruit milk and yoghurt I was quite happy with my decision, I really liked how the plated it. The cereal was delicious with a lovely maple flavour and super crunchy, just the way I like it ~ Only complaint was there wasn’t enough cereal, I was still quite peckish after finishing the bowl, even though they had a good amount of yoghurt and milk to accompany it.

Beef and Mushroom $7.5

Julz decided to go to the lunch menu instead which just started at 11:30am, she chose the beef and mushroom which came with a tomato relish. It looked quite rustic, Julz commented that the filling was quite good with a peppery taste

Rapsberry Pistachio butter mini cake $5

Even though we were satisfied with our brunches, we still had room and I obviously wanted to try their sweets and cakes I was too lazy to go check out the counter hehe but Julz did and said they had a good range of muffins, mini cakes and biscuits. We settled for a raspberry pistachio butter mini cake, I thought it was going to be like a muffin, but it definitely had the texture of a cake. It was light and fluffy and had a gloriously buttery taste with little pieces of raspberry through the cake. But I couldn’t really taste the pistachio which was a shame as I love the taste of pistachio.

As a whole we enjoyed Miss Frank and believe it to have a lot of potential in becoming a fantastic local cafe in the area, but we found the menu a little limited and some items to be slightly overpriced. Having said that we enjoyed the dishes and drinks we ordered and that little cake definitely put a sweet end to our brunch ~ Looking forward to revisiting Miss Frank in the near future and hopefully see some more brunch items on their menu

Easter’s coming actually it’s just around the corner! 2 days left! YAY! Out of all the holidays during the year Christmas is definitely my favourite and then followed closely by Easter:) Even though I’m not religious I think it’s very meaningful for Jesus Christ to sacrifice and Easter is to commemorates his resurrection. Another reason would be the abundance of CHOCOLATE and Easter Eggs

I was really lucky this year and got an early Easter present from Lindt Australia and Tris Nicol ~ They sent me the Gold Bunny pack which came with a large bunny and 3 mini bunnies they’re sooooo cute! I wanted to save the mini bunnies for my nephew…but Mr Bao had already all of them before I could stop him! So in return i made him style and be responsible of taking the photos for this post hahaha

I always love giving my family and friends Easter Eggs because sharing is caring That’s why I’m super excited to be able to giveaway 3 Lindt Gold Bunny packs to three lucky Readers! But I’m sorry you may not receive until after Easter because the Post office is closed >_<

Good Luck and wishing you all a Happy and Safe Easter!

To enter this giveaway:
- Leave a comment and tell me what do you do with leftover Easter Eggs? 
- For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
- Giveaway ends on the 1st of April (Monday) 
- You may reenter daily, one entry a day
- Winners will be chosen by random.org and announced on this blog and notified via email
- Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

This is a sponsored post from Trish Nicol and Lindt. Daisy@Nevertoosweet sampled the chocolates for free, however, review and opinions are honest and based on personal taste and preferences. 

Greetings everyone Hope you’ve all had an amazing Easter and have indulged in too much chocolate (if that’s even possible!). I didn’t have time to blog during Easter because my parents and sister (Win Win) was here to visit. But unfortunately, Win Win had to leave after a week, while my parents are still here for another 2 months yay!

Humpty Dumpty displayed used over 40 kgs of chocolate!

Even though Easter’s over now…I still wanted to blog about the Cacao Easter Egg Masterclass I was invited to by Cacao and Tink PR a week before Easter ~ It was like a mini reunion for us bloggers because most of us had attended the Pizza Competition at Grosvenor Hotel a couple of weeks before. At this event I was joined by Shellie, Cherrie, Ashley, Lianne, Peach Water, Brunch Addict Agnes and Amy. So good to see everyone again Special thanks to Lianne for letting me use some of her photos xox

The class was held at the Cacao store in St Kilda, which is actually their first store and everything use to made here until the demand outgrew the capacity ~ I’ve driven past this store many times but never visited and was surprised to see that they did not have their delicious macarons and chocolates, but also a range of cakes. I’m definitely going to come back and try them sometime soon.

Dark Hot Chocolate

Cacao was very generous and offered us a drink to start the night ~ After seeing photos of the ice-cream chocolate Shellie and Cherrie had, I was so tempted to get it. But it was getting a bit chilly that night so decided to go for the dark hot chocolate instead, it was deep, rich and smooth everything I imagined ~

Canapes

They were also very thoughtful and provided us with some savoury canapes such as mini quiches and mini salmon rolls Great as most of us had gone straight from work and hadn’t had the chance to grab dinner, while I had been working from home and grazing on snacks all day ~

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Julia then introduced us to Tim Clark one of the co-owners and creator of Cacao Fine Chocolates along with Laurent Meric. I was quite flattered when Tim actually recognised me as I have visited the Cacao store in Doncaster before and had tagged him in my Instagram posts ~ he immediately said “You have a sweet tooth don’t you?” LOL how awkward…everyone knows!

Tim Clark

We were then led into the kitchen where it had a large marble bench, Tim explained that we were going to make a very special Easter egg that had a tiny sphere inside that was filled with salted caramel and chocolate. Even thinking about it makes my mouth water

Spread spread spread ~

First things first, tempering the chocolate which it an incredible shine and also that ‘crack’ sound when breaking into it. To temper the chocolate Tim melts the chocolate, then spreads it over the marble bench top and uses a bench scrapper to push it back into the middle and then spreads it out again.

Swish Swish Swish

He repeats this a couple of times until the chocolate cools to around 28 degrees. Tim said the best way to check this is with your lip as it is around body temperature or with a thermometer if doing this at home

Easter egg moulds & salted caramel crystals

Once the chocolate has been tempered it is now ready for use and can be used to make the egg shells AKA molding. Note it’s important to polish the molds with some cotton pads before using them to ensure it gives a shine to the eggs shells. Using a ladle fill the molds to the brim and then using one swift move tip it over and scrap it clean with the pastry scraper.

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Before it sets, we sprinkled the Salted Caramel crystals Tim had previous made for us ~ so pretty like brown diamonds hehe

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Now that the shells are done, we had to make the salted caramel chocolate spread that will be used to fill the chocolate spheres also going into the Easter Eggs. I have bought this salted caramel spread before and still have a jar at home, it is so delicious and addictive, I’m warn you not to make it unless you have very good self control. I clearly don’t hahhaa If you’d like the recipe let me know and I’ll email it to you ~ Tim said it’s ok to share if not I will try and blog about it soon ~

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Once the spread was made it was time to pipe them into the pre-made chocolate spheres, we first filled it with salted caramel, then topped it with melted chocolate then closed them together. This keeps getting better!

LOL at Iron Chef Shellie

Photo Credit: Lianne (Food Made With Love)

Tim had placed our Easter eggs into the fridge to help them chill and set, but he said that ideally it should be left in room temperature for 24 hours to allow it to set naturally to create the shiniest finish ~

Rub Rub Rub

Once the Easter eggs were removed from the molds, we placed one of those salted caramel spheres and placed it in the middle of one shell. Then this step surprised me, I had always wanted to know how the egg shells stuck together, and it’s actually done by placing a baking sheet into the oven and warming it. Then gently rub the egg shells onto the warm baking sheet and as the edges have slightly melted, gently place on shell on top of the other. And if all works well…they stick together

Assembling the Easter Eggs

There you go! That’s our finished product! Milk Chocolate Easter egg with a secret salted caramel surprise! I am so proud of us Team work! Also I am never ever going to take an Easter egg for granted ever again! It’s a long process and requires a lot of skill, which I don’t have yet But I have promised myself that I am going to practice and next year I am going to make my own Easter eggs to give out to my family and friends!

Finished product

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can buy this Easter egg anymore since but you can still buy Cacao’s other chocolate goodies and if you haven’t tried their macarons, you definitely have to go try! The pisatchio flavour is my favourite.

Cacao’s macaronsl

I would like to thank Tim and everyone else at Cacao as well at Julia for inviting me to such an interesting, fun and chocolate-filled class

Daisy@Nevertoosweet attended this event as a guest of Cacao Fine Chocolates and Patisserie and TinkPR

I feel a little sad as I write this blog post about Bangpop, not because I don’t like it or had a bad experience, oppositely Mr Bao and I had a great meal and enjoyed the dishes there. But I am sadden by the fact that The Sharing House has now closed down and Bangpop has now taken over. I first heard about Bangpop from Libby (The Very Very Hungry Caterpillar) who got an email from a PR company telling her this bad news. We were both really shocked and surprised that such an good restaurant would be gone in such a short period of time >_< I have visited a few times and have always liked their dishes. We suspect it is because during the weeknights, The Sharing House found it hard to attract enough customers to sustain business

Bangpop

Anyhow, I have always liked Paul Mathis (owner) restaurants such as The Sharing House, Henry and The Fox, Coffeehead and many more. So I definitely wanted to try Bangpop and also support them ~ Through Instagram, I found out that Bangpop had a ‘soft-opening’ for the first two weeks and offered a 25% off the whole bill. Perfect timing to try, after all Thai food is one of my favourite types of cuisines. I made a booking on the last day of their ‘soft-opening’ and was able to get a table for two at 6:30pm. As you can see from the picture, ‘The Sharing House’ signage has not been removed yet and simply painted black, while there wasn’t any clear signage of Bangpop yet, however, the menu was stuck on the windows near the front door for customers to look at.

Still the same decor ~

I was really curious to see if they would change the decor of the restaurant, especially the bar area which cost more than $12,000 worth of lego. It was a relief to see the lego still there but the words ‘The Sharing House’ were no longer there. Even though this space has now become a Thai restaurant with the same chairs and tables, we didn’t feel like we were dining in a new restaurant.

I even recognised some of the waitering staff, like the manager in this photo who’s making the coffee He was always nice and helpful and would always try to remember customer’s names, which I found quite nice, as not waiting staff do that ~ The waitress who looked after our table was also very friendly, and told us that they were in the trial and error phase and welcomed any type of feedback.

“Kai Chae Nam Pla Tod” Marinated chicken spare ribs with nam jim talay and pickled shallots $12.90

Bangpop’s menu was quite simple with a range of small/entree dishes, salads, curries, mains and desserts. We started our meal with the marinated chicken spare ribs with nam jim talay and picked shallots. I don’t think I’ve had this Thai dish before, but I really liked the tenderness of the chicken spareribs and the crispiness of the chicken skin. The nam jim talay had a good balance of sweet, sour and spicy, we found it to be a great appetiser as the sourness helped increase jump start our appetite

“Som Dtum Thai” Isaan Green Papaya salad $13.90

Green papaya salad is my ‘must-order’ dish whenever I go to a Thai restaurant, I love the crunchiness from the green papaya and crushed peanuts. This salad was more on the sour and spicy side, which I really liked because I like my salads to be extra spicy While Mr Bao struggled with the heat and drank a lot of water hahaha sorry I’m a bit mean ~

“Penang Nua” 16 hour cooked beef shin penang curry with fresh shallot, lime leaf and coriander $23.90

For our mains we chose the beef shin which was cooked for 16 hours in a penang curry with fresh shallot, lime leaves and coriander. The curry was much milder in flavour with only a little heat to it and strong coconut flavour through it.

Tender beef shin

The beef shins were cooked wonderfully and was tender and soft to eat, definitely the way we like our meat. Mr Bao really liked the curry sauce and kept putting more on of it over his rice

“Khao Mun Kai” Chicken Maryland cooked in stock with rice and nam jim $15.90

Sauces for the Maryland Chicken

Mr Bao requested that we order the “Khao Mun Kai” which is a chicken Maryland cooked in chicken stock with rice and nam jim. I thought this dish was going to be a Thai version of the Hainanese chicken rice and even though there were similarities, especially with the three sauces provided. The sweet and sticky soy sauce, the nam jim and the clear chicken stock. However, it was quite different in terms of flavour and texture as the rice was not fragrant and the chicken pieces were Maryland which had no bones. We enjoyed this dish especially the sauces, but found the chicken pieces to be a little bland and could have been improved with some seasoning ~

“Pad Thai” with tofu, garlic chives, bean sprouts and crisps shallots $14.90

I don’t know why we were still hungry after all that food lol so we decided to add a Pad Thai with tofu, garlic chives, bean sprouts and fried shallots, but to Mr Bao’s disappointment it was actually a vegetarian dish and I’m sure you all know how he feels about vegetarian dishes Having said that though, we really liked the flavours of this pad thai and what really impressed us was how dry it was and not at all oily or sticky

“Kluay Tod” Deep fried “sugar banana’ served with coconut ice-cream $8.90 approx

Time for dessert I let Mr Bao choose what he wanted and he ordered the deep fried ‘sugar banana’ served with coconut ice-cream. Sorry I don’t really remember how much this cost but I assume it would be about the same as the other dessert at around $8.90. Unfortunately we didn’t like this dessert very much, the sugar bananas which I assume to be lady fingers were deep fried in a light batter, which strangely tasted quite savoury and underneath it there was little chilli flakes and a spicy and salty syrup. We felt that this dessert was more savoury than sweet, even though the coconut ice-cream was lovely and creamy.

I wasn’t going to say anything but the manager came over and asked us how the desserts were and I told him nicely that it tasted rather savoury and spicy and whether this was what it was supposed to taste like. He was very professional took our advice and went back to the kitchen to ask the chef, turns out that the chilli was supposed to be there as it was a chilli sugar syrup but they forgot to write that in the description. The manager was very generous and insisted that he take this dessert off our menu even though we declined and said we were happy to pay. I think it’s very rare to find restaurants who are wiling to take constructive criticism and take that feedback and improve their dishes Very impressed with this!

“Woon-Ma Prow” young coconut jelly with young coconut fleshed and toasted coconut $8.90

The other dessert we got as one that I saw over on Pig Out Travels post and was immediately intrigued because I know I love young coconut water and the flesh so thought it would be wonderful when made into a jelly. But my first reaction when I saw the dessert was ‘It’s TINY!’ hahaha don’t be mislead by the photo because it was a really tiny glass probably the size of a medium apple! But that’s okay because they do say ‘good things come in small packages’ e.g. diamond rings Anyhow, this dessert did not disappoint it was wonderfully refreshing and light as it used young coconuts and mature ones which had stronger flavours and richer texture. I would have liked it even more if it was just a tiny bit bigger, because I wanted more of it

Overall, Mr Bao and I really enjoyed Bangpop, dishes were good and reasonably priced, service was slow at times but given that it was their soft opening it’s understandable. We really appreciated the fact that they actually took our feedback about the dessert and was going to work on it Even though I still miss The Sharing House and really hope that we will see up again somewhere else, I had a chat with Path Mathis on Twitter and understand financially it wasn’t feasible to keep it running. I think Bangpop has some big shoes to fill, but they’re doing a fine job and I’m looking forward to revisiting again

A few weeks ago, I was sent by my company to do a 2 day intense training course called ‘Business Acumen’, where we were split into groups of 4 and had to run our own business. Surprisingly I was appointed as the CEO of our company! Gosh I have no idea how to run a business and certainly don’t know how to be a good CEO. But thankfully my team mates were great and very supportive of each other Even though our company was fake and it was a game, we were all very serious and it was actually very tiring, going through the facts and figures and trying to make the best decision.

Meatball and Winebar

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and Fake CEO’s need to eat well Mr Bao was very sweet and drove me to the training site because it’s too hard to find parking, so in return, I offered to take him out for breakfast. I wanted to take him somewhere special and not just have bacon and eggs, so I did some research the night before and found that the Meatball and Wine Bar was now serving breakfast as well!

We have never had meatballs for breakfast so was intrigued to try. We got there just past 7am and they were still setting up the tables, but the waiter was very friendly and immediately showed us a table. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Meatball & Wine Bar empty and quiet, as usually it’s packed full of people.

The breakfast menu was quite simple – balls, balls and more balls I can’t help but think of the Queen of Balls hahaha you know who you are! The concept was quite similar to their lunch and dinner menu where it mainly focuses on meatballs with sauce of your choice.

Baked egg and balls with beans $12.5

I chose the Baked eggs and balls with beans and chose the pork meatball, they did have a vegetable meatball option as well I really liked the flavour of the meatball and thought it went very well with the red sauce and the end. But found the beans to be slightly undercooked and a little firm. But I understand that we were the first customers and the kitchen may not have had enough time to cook them.

Breakfast sliders $12

Mr Bao ordered the Breakfast sliders with an egg ball with bacon and red sauce. This seemed a little heavy for me but…if he can have a burger for breakfast I’m sure sliders will be fine too I thought the idea of the egg ball was very clever, and the waiter told me that they created it by baking the egg in a round tin in the oven, like the ones used to make cake pops ~ Now I’m interested to borrow that idea next time I have a party. Mr Bao liked his sliders commenting the buns were soft and fluffy, however, would have liked the egg balls to have some more seasoning.

We both got up at around 5:30am and could barely keep our eyes open so had to have a latte ~ The coffee provider is ‘Coffee by Dukes’. I think the barista knew we were really tired because it was quite strong but didn’t have any bitter aftertaste ~

Latte $3.5

We probably wouldn’t have meatballs for breakfast on a daily or weekly basis, but on the odd occasion I think it’s actually quite nice and fun It also helped fill me up until lunchtime which was great since I didn’t have a lot of time to eat. Fake CEO’s are so busy

I won a bottle of wine

As for the game? I think I have potential to become a REAL CEO My team won the challenge making 15 million in profits and won a bottle of wine each! I learned so much from the Business Acumen training and now understand why companies make the decisions they do. Just curious, my lovely Readers are any of you a CEO or business owner and how do you make important business decisions in a short period of time?

I’m sure we all know the health benefits of eating at home and it’s much cheaper…but I’m just hopeless at cooking and simply too lazy That’s how we ended up having dinner at Seoul Soul. We didn’t want to cook but didn’t want to spend too much, so we went through the trusted “Good Food Under $30″ guide and found Seoul Soul in Richmond. As the name suggests it is a Korean restaurant

Seoul Soul

I called to make a booking and the lady with a Korean accent was very friendly and told us to take our time. It’s quite easy to miss Seoul Soul as it doesn’t have a very big sign outside, but its on Victoria St in the same building as Woolworths and ALDI  ~

Seoul Soul is quite small with two large tables on the left and a couple of small tables on the right, I know some might find it to be a little cramped, the waitress was simply too friendly and nice that I thought it was just cosy She kept apologising that this was the only table left and she wanted to give it a bigger table. She really didn’t have to! The table was fine

Complimentary sides

Deep Fried Chicken dumpling $6

LOL I think we over ordered again, starting with the deep fried chicken dumplings which were piping hot, the filling was delicious with hints of ginger, but the pastry was a little thick and reminded me of empanadas.

Deep fried calamari salad $12

I was trying to be healthy and wanted to order a salad…but I think it defeats the purpose when I order a deep fried calamari salad but at least it had fruit in it The fried calamari was lovely with a light batter and wasn’t oily at all and I reminded me of Japanese salads with the slices of peach and strawberries.

Spicy pork bulgogi $13

I read Bryan’s blog post and immediately knew I wanted to order the Dosirak which is like a bento box but served in a small bamboo bucket and came with rice, salad, finger food and fruit. I really liked the presentation and the spicy pork bulgogi was spicy but I know other bloggers have commented to be a little on the sweet side, which is how I like it We also liked the little potato croquette that came with the Dosirak with a light and fluffy filling!

Spicy chicken bulgogoi $13

I was surprised Mr Bao ordered the spicy chicken bulgogi as he usually goes for the Teriyaki as he doesn’t really like spicy food. He really enjoyed this dish saying the chicken was cooked nicely and very tender. He was being so stingy and wouldn’t share with me! Only giving me two small pieces to try!

Marinated beef rib (120g) $15

We also wanted to try some of their Chargrilled BBQ dishes, I thought the marinated beef rib was great value $15 for 120g which was more than enough for 2 people. The beef was well marinated and wasn’t overcooked, still retaining the juicy texture. We polished this dish very quickly.

Max beer $8

I was driving that night so Mr Bao decided to get a Korean beer to wash all that delicious food down ~ he tried the Max beer which he hasn’t had before. It quite light in taste but I found it a little too ‘malty’ for me, but I’m really more of a Cider girl.

Rice cake Ice-cream $2.5

It’s rare to find desserts in a Korean restaurants so I was impressed to see the only dessert option ‘Rice cake ice-cream’ which was clearly a store bought mochi with a vanilla ice-cream filling. But it was still nicely plated with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and strawberries. Probably not the best rice cake I have had but a great way to end the night.

We were very impressed with the food and service here at Seoul Soul and have already recommended it to my colleague Yue who has visited with his friends and also enjoyed it. If you’re looking for a cheap and cheery or a casual place for dinner with friends, I would highly recommend Seoul Soul

I love my friends Because they know me so well! Probably a month ago the Herald Sun published an article “Melbourne’s 25 Best Desserts” and immediately a number of friends texted, emailed, Facebooked and tweeted me the link to it. Nearly brought tears to my eyes that my friends know me and my insatiable sweet tooth so well!

Even though my friends are so supportive of my sweet tooth not all of them are up for the challenge to tackle all 25 desserts…but I know one person who will and that’s Kirk He’s a pastry chef after all so he’s gotta have a sweet tooth and trying more desserts will be like research for him! It’s a win-win if you ask me

Anyhow, going down the list of dessert places, San Telmo’s dulce de leche creme caramel caught my attention and I don’t think I’ve had a proper South American meal before ~ So off we went. It was an impromptus catch up so at 6pm on a Sunday I immediately phoned San Telma hoping that they’ll have a table available. Luckily they did and said we can just rock up anytime

Like any other restaurant in Melbourne, San Telmo is located on Meyers Place one of the quiet and hidden streets between Spring St and are Bourke St. If you’re driving there you may be lucky like us to find free parking or there’s a car park right in front the restaurant ~

Upon walking in, I could immediately smell the meat on the chargrill and couldn’t want to get some in my mouth San Telmo’s also quite a dark restaurant with dark tables and chairs and dim lights. The waiter was friendly and gave us a quite table close by the kitchen so we could see all the chefs in action ~

Ceviche – Peruvian style lemon cured white fish with chilli, sweet potato and onion $16

The menu here is designed to be share with ‘smaller’ and ‘larger’ dishes. We decided to begin with the ‘Mas Pequeno’ small dishes, Kirk chose the Ceviche – Peruvian style which was white fish that was cured in lemon juice with chilli and accompanied with sweet potato and onion. Unfortunately, the fish wasn’t very fresh and the texture of the flesh was a little powdery we also found it to be too sour and overpowered the whole dish.

Mejilla de Cerdo – Braised pork jowl ‘cheek’ with crackling $19

Since trying pork jowl for the first time last year, it’s now one of my favourite cuts of pork, but it’s still not very popular. We loved the fatty ‘melt-in-your-mouth’ texture of the pork jowl and the crackling was salty with a good ‘crack’ to it This was probably the winner of the night!

Tira De Asado – Pasture fed beef short ribs $28

Next up was a larger dish the ‘Tira De Asado’  these pasture fed beef short ribs had strong chargrilled flavour, I was worried at first that it might have been burnt but not to worry it was cooked perfectly. We were given some chimichurri to go with the ribs, we liked the texture of the beef but found it to be a little bland and it would have been better if it was seasoned with some salt. However, having said that I’ve never really had South American food so I’m not sure if that’s how they cook their meat

Entrana – Pasture fed hanger steak $36

Don’t know why I was convinced by Kirk to order another beef dish, this time it was the Entrana a pasture fed hanger steak. I like the other name for hanger steak ‘butcher’s steak’ because it’s such a good cut that the butchers’ rather keep it for themselves ~ The hanger steak had really good flavour and was once again chargrilled but we found it to be underwhelming and slightly too chewy for my liking.

Flan de Dulce – Dulce de leche creme caramel $14

After all that meat, finally it was time for dessert or should i say ‘Postres’ I could finally try the acclaimed Dulce De Leche Creme Caramel with salted peanut praline. The creme caramel had good caramel flavours but I expected it to taste more like dulce de leche with the condense milk flavour. It also wasn’t as smooth was we expected and Kirk suggested it’s probably because it was over-mixed and too much air had been incorporated. We did like the dulce de leche on top which was sticky sweet and the salted peanut praline where the saltiness helped cut through some of the sweetness (once again not a problem for me )

Chocolate Mousse $14

The chocolate mousse was made out of Varlhona 80% dark chocolate with chocolate wafer and blueberries. I don’t generally dislike any desserts but I really couldn’t like this…the texture of the chocolate mousse was grainy and dried out which indicates that it has been pre-made and left in the refrigerator for quite some time. The chocolate wafers were alright but weren’t as crispy as we had liked and we felt the blueberries were a little out of place. Very disappointing

Alfajores $5

To finish up we ordered an Alfajores to share, which is an Argentinian cookied filled with dulce de leche. The biscuit was very thick, dry and crumbly and there was clearly not enough dulce de leche which was a shame Instead i was reminiscing the alfajore I had at the Eat Drink Blog conference last year which was thinner with plenty of dulce de leche.

It was definitely a meat overload dinner at San Telmo, I don’t remember the last time I had that much meat in one meal last time was probably ‘All-You-Can-Eat’ Korean BBQ Despite trying very hard to like San Telmo, neither of us did. We found the savoury dishes under seasoned and lacked flavour, however, it was the pre-made desserts that was the most disappointing.