Melbourne’s a fascinating place. It’s full of arts and culture around every corner. Melbourne’s graffiti filled lane ways is world renowned and one of the most celebrated of them all is Hosier Lane in the CBD. It houses some of the most colourful and well executed urban art you will find around and is also where Movida calls home.

Movida is a name that most foodies would know. Including the original Movida, there’s also Movida Next Door and Movida Bar de Tapas. Yuye and I caught up with 2 good friends over dinner at the original Movida one night and enjoyed their Spanish tapas style dishes.

The night was still young but Movida was already almost full. I love that kind of atmosphere as the chattering and dim lights give me a sense of excitement. There were eager diners seated at the tables as well as white collars enjoying a drink at the bar after work.

As there were 4 of us, we decided to try a bit of almost everything on the entree section to share between us.

The first dish that made it to the table was the hand filleted Cantabrian Artisan Anchovy on Crouton with Smoked Tomato Sorbet ($4.50). It had a perfect harmony of citrus, saltiness and textures. I’m not used to eating savoury ice creams so it was a little strange at the start but it grew on me. It was though a little too small to share 3 pieces between 4 people.

The second dish was the Spiced Chicken Escabache Tapa on Crisp Crouton ($4.50) which was creamy in the middle and brought out by the crunchy baguette. I did find it wasn’t the most spectacular or memorable dish compared to the others though.

Next up was the Air-dried Tuna Loin with Air Baguette and Radish ($4.00) which was refreshing and had nice textural elements but I didn’t find it all that spectacular.

At this moment I had to pick up a phone call so by the time I came in, the Gaspacho Sorbet in the House Cold Smoked Spanish Mackerel with Pine Nut Gazpacho Sorbet $5.50) had melted. It didn’t help that I had to take photos as well. As a result I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of this dish as I should have. Still, it was a nice nutty flavour that was mellowed out by the sorbet, although I did find it a little salty.

What came next was the squid ink croquette with Cuttlefish ($4.00). I had high hopes for this dish but it didn’t wow me as much as I hoped. The squid ink wasn’t all that flavourful, although the cuttlefish was cooked perfectly.

The next dish was the Deep Fried Salt Cod and Potato Fritta with Pil Pil ($4.00). When we ordered the dish, we had no idea what pil pil was. It turns out to be a sauce made from oil that the fish was cooked in and contains garlic and hot peppers. We didn’t get all that much pil pil to be honest which may have affected the overall saltiness and taste of this dish. I’ve seen photos of this dish ordered by other people and they had a lot more sauce than we did.

Next up was the baby sardine with lemon crumb and sweet and sour pickle ($4). Although small, it was refreshing (a little bit salty) but still enjoyable. The sour pickles cut through the saltiness of the sardines while giving it more flavour.

Anna wanted to order one of the specials on offer which had baby octopus and potato. We were expecting an actual baby octopus like the ones you often find in Korean dishes, but it turned out to be a limb of a much larger one. Still, it was tender, juicy and full of flavour. The potato was soft and well cooked as well.

Probably my favourite dish of the night was the Duck Liver Parfait with Pedro Ximenez Foam and Toasted Brioche ($15). Who can blame me right, because anything foie gras like I love. I felt like there wasn’t enough brioche to go around though as we were all fighting for that little bit of liver parfait. It was perfectly salty and beautifully smooth which went surprising very well with the sweet foam. Pedro Ximenez for those of you who don’t know is a type of white grape primarily grown in Spain. This gave the foam that sweet taste. In saying it’s a foam, I’d rather call it more like marshmallow texture as it held together rather well.

I don’t think I could have survived the night without some sort of proper meat dish so for our last savoury dish, we ordered the Slow Cooked Flinders Island Lamb Neck in a Paprika and Fino (Spanish sherry) Sauce ($18.50). The meat was melt in your mouth and fall off the bone with a tiny touch sort of tender. There was a right amount of sauce which was good and the slightly sweet but not overpowering flavours was in good harmony with the tender meat. It was an enjoyable but slightly small dish.

The first dessert dish we ordered was the Flan – creme caramel with pestinos ($12). The flan was smooth but a little more eggy than we’re used to although still very delicious and rich. It seemed a little hard to finish with just one person.

What I was looking forward to was the churros – Spanish doughnuts with a rich drinking chocolate ($11). Most of the churros I’ve had elsewhere served them with a rich melted pot of chocolate to dip in, but Movida served theirs literally with a drinking type chocolate that’s although rich, is not overall sweet so you can drink it afterwards. If you’ve had Spanish hot chocolates before you’ll know what I mean by rich and thick. I liked this dish so was happy to be given the task of polishing it off.

I ended the night with a latte which was just average but then Movida isn’t know for their coffees.

I thought Movida’s dishes were reasonably priced although some serves were quite small. I can understand how some people think the dishes are a tad on the salty side but most dishes had a good combination of traditional and modern Spanish flavours that’s texturally entertaining as well. I was expecting a little more wow factor though considering it’s one of the most raved about restaurants in Melbourne so in that sense I was a little disappointed. If you haven’t been, definitely do give it a go for the whole dining experience. You’ll love the graffiti laneway it’s set in as well I’m sure.

Movida Bar de Tapas
Phone: (03) 9663 3038
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne
http://www.movida.com.au/

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a revisit to any restaurant or cafe, even if I do go there a lot. I just feel like there’s generally not much more I can offer in terms of new information or photos to my readers, that is, unless if there’s a significant change to what we had or what’s on offer. Chez Dre on the other hand, I just had to re-post about since my first post only contained desserts.

Did I also mention it’s my favourite cafe in Melbourne?

We managed to organise a group outing that day so I had the chance to take photos of all the delicious dishes we had and more interior shots too. This place always makes me excited.

Who can blame me when they have such a good selection of desserts in counter? Everytime I visit, my first go to place is the dessert counter and every time, there’s something new. How they manage to pump out so many pretty and tasty desserts is beyond me, that’s what they call talent.

Anyway, enough of me blabbering about the desserts because this time we had brunch too.

I started off with my usual latte which was smooth and full-bodied, just how I remembered it.

Daz ordered a flat white with such perfect art. Really wish I can pour like that one day.

Although I didn’t get to try it but the hot chocolate looked to die for. It was too pretty to not take a photo, although it looked a little too big to fit in my belly (at least not with dessert around the corner).

Kenneth and I decided to share our meals since we both couldn’t decide what to have. It turned out to be a good decision because I got to try a bit of both dishes I wanted to order.

The first dish was the Grand Petit Dejeuner ($21.50) with poached eggs on sourdough, bacon, spicy lamb sausage, potato rosti, sauteed mushrooms, slow roasted tomato, avocado & tomato relish. It sounds like and was a very big and filling dish. I’m glad I had this to share because there was no way I could have finished it on my own.

It was a delicious dish as expected. The slight tang of the avocado and tomato relishes cut through the heaviness of the remaining dish and the potato rosti was cooked just right with a slightly crunchy outer crust. The dish probably didn’t really need the bread.

In the excitement of eating and taking photos, I realised after I dug in that I had forgotten to take my egg porn shot! Such a shame.

The second dish we had to share was the duck sandwich ($23.50) with confit pulled duck, onion jam, red cabbage, grated apple and truffle mayonnaise. I wasn’t sure whether it was because I had this dish after I had the big breakfast style Grand Petit Dejeuner or maybe because I was already quite full, but I didn’t find this dish as spectacular as it looked. Firstly I thought it was a little dry. I also couldn’t taste any truffles which is always a shame when it happens. Apart from that it was still an enjoyable dish, I really need to eat it first to give it a proper opinion next time.

The following are some of the other mains my partners in crime ordered. I didn’t get to try these (as I was seriously quite bloated) so these photos are for your eyes only.

Daz’s steak and bacon sandwich with a fried egg ($23.50). I SO SO SOOOO wanted to cut that yolk open. I should have asked and I’m kicking myself for not doing it.

Geoff’s baguette with house salad (half at $7.50). I couldn’t remember what type he got though.

Y’s Maroccan Baked Eggs ($18.50) with spicy lamb sausage, tahini yoghurt and baguette. This looked really yummy.

Apart from Daz’s Vanilla Millefeuille ($8.50) which was too hard to share, I did get to try a bit of all the desserts below. *happy dance*

I originally wanted the lychee, raspberry and coconut dessert but the waitress informed me that it was already sold out so I settled for the mandarin, macadamia and chocolate instead – $8.50 (chocolate biscuit, mandarin marmalade, chocolate mousse). However, at the end of the meal, we realised that the lychee dessert was restocked! I wasn’t too happy about that, although I did enjoy my chocolate substitute.

It was velvety, rich and so decadent that it was a little hard to finish by myself. For those of you who don’t know, my eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to rich and very sweet desserts. It had just the right about of orange flavour which brought the whole dessert together. Yuye wouldn’t have liked this one though since he’s not a fan of orange/chocolate pairings and I always thought he was crazy for thinking that.

The other dessert that I almost got (which 2 of my friends did get – yay!) was the green tea, mango and black sesame ($8.50). It consisted of mango jelly, white chocolate creme, black sesame brulee and green tea mousse. It sounds like such a perfect dessert because I like all of these elements but it actually turned out to be a little disappointing.

Perhaps it was a little too much with 3 different flavours mixed into one. Perhaps it would have been better with just 2 elements. I found it a little hard to concentrate on any one of the flavours and it was a little consuming. I was a bit lost.

The standout dessert which I didn’t even think of getting was kenneth’s seasonal fruit tart ($8.50) which was topped with fresh figs and a whole blob of mascapone with vanilla bean. It not only looked stunning, it was totally delicious too. For one, it was light (yes, despite the mascapone on top). It tasted fresh and the pastry was crumbly and light as well and this made sure everyone agreed it was the best dessert we had that day.

Thank you for a great time once again Chez Dre. I will be back for more of your delicious desserts and meals!

Chez Dre

Phone: (03) 9690 2688
287 Coventry St (rear), South Melbourne
http://www.chezdre.com.au/

When I started my bottle shop in the north, I was worried that I will no longer be able to eat brunch like I used to. For one, there’s no time (or more like I’m too lazy to get up early…). The more important part was there just doesn’t seem to be as many hip cafes out in the suburbs. I wasn’t about to give up though and so the hunt began.

I tried a few cafes near the shop and a couple were not bad, but I was quite taken by this little discovery called Aura in Templestowe for their beautifully prepared food and lovely service.

It was quite a memorable visit as well for it was wasp season and we were sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine. I’m sure you can imagine what happened…it just wouldn’t leave our table! The manager was very nice and had us moved inside. Even towards the end of the meal, it was still hovering around. Perhaps someone dropped a jar of honey on that table?

I really needed a good caffeine hit so got my usual latte. It was beautifully presented (you know I love my coffee art) but I did find it a little bit weak although still hit the good ol’ caffeine spot in my tummy.Perhaps I will ask for a strong next time.

Yuye got a cappucino (just because I asked him to for my photos).

Aura has a good selection of breakfast and lunch items but since I was craving for some eggs, I just had to get the Poached Special (GF) for $13.90. It’s not everyday that I get gluten-free meals (meaning no bread!) but it was a great choice given the weather at the time. The dish was beautiful in all aspects. It was beautifully presented with vibrant colours from the tomato and avocado salsa. It was refreshing and healthy, complimented by the smoked salmon.

The best part though, it had 3 poached eggs! Okay, so it may have been a bit too many eggs for one day. But hey, I’ve been deprived of runny egg yolks for a while so it was fine.

We did get this dish with hollandaise sauce as an extra ($2) but it didn’t really need it.

Now for some egg porn. Mmmmm…

To make matters worse, Yuye ordered the Breaky Feast ($14.50) which came with a potato rosti, continental sausage, roast tomato, spinach and…2 more poached eggs!! Now 5 eggs between 2 people really was a little too much, although we loved it anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good the potato rosti was, since I’ve had nothing but soggy and slightly burnt ones this year. Aura made a crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside rosti that wasn’t at all oily. Doesn’t the presentation make you want to dig right in?

Now for some more egg porn shots…I know you can’t get enough of it like me!

Although we didn’t have any, Aura also has a nice selection of sweet things as well but we were running late for work. Hope I won’t be in as much of a hurry next time I visit.

What I liked the most about Aura though was the service. We were greeted with a big smile and smiles were there throughout the meal and often that’s what makes the difference.

Aura

Phone: (03) 98504007
200 High Street, Templestowe VIC 3107
http://www.auracrb.com.au/

Most Asian restaurants I’ve been dining at recently have been fast food or close to it. There is one exception, and that’s U-Village in St Kilda. When I was given the chance to dine there as their guest, I was a little unsure as to what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

The decor is clean, modern and comfortable with a touch of chic. It might be a little different to what you’d expect from an Asian restaurant, but I thought it was quite fitting of the type of food on offer and the locality. It is casual, yet classy.

Soothing classical music was playing in the background amongst pot plants and fresh flowers. The decor reminded me more of a hip cafe than a Malaysian restaurant, although I suspect they’d do quite well if they decided to offer breakfast/brunch options with an Asian twist.

We were greeted by the lovely owner of U-Village Zhao Kai Yee who looked after us the whole night. He also made us a cocktail with lemongrass, lychee and lime. It was a very refreshing and delicious cocktail that wasn’t too strong. It served as a perfect starter to the meal.

Zhao said that he wanted this establishment to be known for its bar and I do agree that they have a great selection, especially what was on tap and the great range of unique cocktails. I would have wanted to try many more of them if it wasn’t for my Asian genes…

The menu was carefully prepared for us with 3 entrees, 2 mains, a side with rice and 2 desserts. Talk about a lot of food!

The entrees arrived all together, beautifully presented and intricately prepared.

The first dish we tasted was the five-spiced prawn with sambal (a chilli based sauce), lime and caramel sugar ($8). It was a little spicy, just the right saltiness and crispy on the outside. I normally don’t like shiso leaves but I thought the shiso leaf in this case added depth of taste and refreshingness to the fried prawn. It tasted best with a squeeze of lime juice. Did I mention the prawn was bouncy and cooked to perfection? Too bad the plate only came with 2 because I could have eaten many more.It definitely did its job of whetting my appetite though.

The second entree was the five-spiced duck with pomegranate, pine nuts and sweet soy ($10). This dish was sweet and very textural with the crunch of pine nuts and the lettuce cup as well as other ingredients all adding to the enjoyment. I liked the little bursts of sourness from the pomegranate but felt I could have done with a bit more. The sauce was provided separately so I could drizzle on the right amount of sauce.

Although Yuye didn’t like this dish at first because of the pomegranates, he decided it wasn’t all that bad in the end. I on the other hand thought it was quite nice, although the five-spiced prawns were a lot better.

The third entree was satay prawns with peanut chilli sauce and cucumber relish ($10). It came with three fried rice crackers on the bottom which added a nice crunch but I did think the satay was a little on the lighter side. The prawns again were perfectly cooked but compared to the other 2 dishes, this dish wasn’t as creative although still delicious.

I’m going to just put it out there because I thought the mains were just fantastic. Although it was chosen for us, these 2 dishes would have been our choices as well and you’ll know why.

The first main to arrive at the table was the “thick red rendang curry soft-shell crab, with kaffir lime leaves, eggplant & mint” ($25). It wasn’t the kind of rendang I was expecting but it was so delicious in its own way. The soft-shell crabs were cooked so beautifully that gives a little crunch when you bite into them. The curry was quite spicy but still bearable and had both Yuye and I licking our fingers and lips clean.

As it was a slightly heavier dish, a bit of rice and wok tossed snake beans with sambal sauce ($12) on the side was perfect to mellow out the flavours.

The second main and my favourite dish of the night was the “24 hour sweet vinegar braised pork belly with cinnamon, chilli, black peppercorns served with mango salad” ($28). Pork belly heaven!!! The slightly sweet and sour braise cut through the fattiness of the pork and the mango salad also gave it a wonderfully refreshing and textural feel. The meat itself was melt in the mouth kind of good and we both couldn’t get enough of it. Until we got too full of course, there was just so much food to get through!

I could hardly walk or even talk after I polished off the mains, but wait, it wasn’t the end of our meal at all. Zhao was very thoughtful and paired our food with 2 desserts he thought could help cleanse our palate.

The first dessert was the “lychee lime granita” ($6) which was sweet, refreshing and smooth. Just like he said, it was perfect to cut through the heavy dishes we had earlier. It was a lot better with a squeeze of the lime juice which added zing to the already delicious dish. At just $6, we thought it was a bargain.

The last dish and one of my favourites of the night as well was the “black sesame peanut butter parfait with peanut crumbles and tangy lemon” ($13). I couldn’t express just how excited I was when I laid eyes on this dessert. Black sesame and peanut in my opinion are in perfect harmony with one another. The rich, full-bodied flavours of this dessert made me melt inside. It was well balanced and not overly sweet (which can be a big problems with some desserts) and had wonderful textures and visual appeal. We particularly liked the tangy lemon bits on top, it seemed like lemoned honey of some sorts and added a bit of zing to the sweet dish. Eat it before it melts!

They also had another dessert which I wanted to try and that was the pandan brûlée. Zhao said was it was the second most popular dessert on the menu, second to the black sesame peanut parfait. Just imagining it is making me drool. I think a return visit to U-Village is in order.

U-Village is a family run business which expanded from Malaysia to Australia. However, according to Zhao, the restaurants under the same name in Malaysia have completely different menus and feel. I love what Zhao and his family have done with this new addition to St Kilda and I’m excited to see what else they can offer.

Yuye and I both had a fantastic time chatting to Zhao, drinking his great cocktail and eating the lovingly prepared dishes. I don’t think I’ve had better quality food in an Asian restaurant in a long time. If you do decide to visit U-Village (which I think you all should), I highly recommend the braised pork, soft-shell crab and the black sesame dessert. I’d go back just to eat those again any day! Yes it may seem on the slightly more expensive side compared to other Asian establishments but if it’s a great host, great environment, a bit of sophistication and of course high quality food and drinks you’re after, then it’s definitely worth the bucks you’re paying.

I will be back to sample more of their menu for sure.

U-Village

Phone: (03) 9537 1129
1/29 Fitzroy St, St Kilda VIC 3182
http://www.u-village.com.au/

Note: Ichigo Shortcake dined as a guest of U-Village thanks to Chique Productions Melbourne.

It’s always difficult to travel to a foreign country when you don’t speak the same language. You might be able to flip open a guide book, a translator or even bring a friend who can help you but there are always a lot of unknowns. If you’re one who doesn’t like to take those risks, going with a tour group is the best option. In fact, it might be easier to go with a tour group even if you do speak the language. I’ve taken many a tour in my lifetime and most of them have been around China, my home country.

My family and I choose tours for a few reasons. Firstly, it takes away all the effort and time spent planning. Secondly, you can save a lot of money and time on finding accommodation and transportation. The biggest reward though in my opinion is meeting like minded people on the trip with similar travel ideals.

You can choose to go on a small group tour of China with travel sites such as Travel Indochina which can provide carefully planned itineraries to cities in China. There are plenty of places that I haven’t been to yet, especially Tibet which might be difficult to go to by oneself for political and safety reasons. I’m also very interested in the culinary tour that’s available since I’m such a glutton as well.

Apart from Shanghai and Beijing which I traveled to by myself, other cities around China such as Yunnan and Guilin I went with tour groups and I enjoyed myself immensely on all of them.

I also went on a tour with my family during my recent trip to China and saw me at my roots – Hunan. For those of you who know me, I was born in Shanghai but my dad is actually originally from Hunan. Hunan is such a beautiful place and is also one of the places where James Cameron’s Avatar was based on and filmed at. So you can imagine how pretty it was.

China is full of beautiful scenery and culture as you can see and I really do love sharing my experiences with you.

When I get a chance to sort through all of my photos from the trip, I will do a proper post next time but for now, here’s a few photos.

Note: This post was brought to you in conjunction with Travel Indochina.

I hope you all had a great Easter because I did. We were finally able to take a day off together and in good time too as it was Yuye’s birthday last Thursday.

Time really flies when you’re busy. It feels like just yesterday when Yuye and I started this liquor shop and it’s now been over 2 months already. Everyday I watch the people walk by with their dogs and their  fish and chips, wiping the sweat off their foreheads from the intense heat we’ve had, enjoying their meals under the sun. Now it’s dark, gloomy and raining. It almost feels like it’s mid winter.

It’s also been 3 weeks since I last wrote a post. Shame on me. I can only say I’ll try harder to keep up the writing now that we’re taking days off in turn.

It’s funny how people complain about the heat when it’s hot but miss it as soon as it’s gone…that’s what I’m doing at the moment. Although sometimes it felt unbearable to sleep or work but I really do still prefer the heat over this miserable chill.

Apart from the sunshine, breakfast is the other thing that I really miss. Gone are the days when I can wake up and cook myself something to eat like these delicious blueberry pancakes. Well, technically not gone but work makes me not want to get up earlier than I have to. I’m sure you understand? I’m still trying to adjust my lifestyle so hopefully I can fit in time to make a few meals a week.

But for now, I can only dream about these light and fluffy pancakes.

Note: At the time of making, I couldn’t find my baking powder so decided to use cake flour instead and it worked just fine. I also only put 1 egg into the photo but I actually used 2.

Blueberry and buttermilk pancakes
Yields 12 pancakes

Ingredients

- 2 cups plain flour (or cake flour and omit baking powder)
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter and more for the pan, melted and cooled
- 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
- maple syrup for serving

Instructions

1. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and 1/4 cup sugar in a large bowl.

2. In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk, milk, butter, lemon juice. vanilla extract and eggs. Whisk until eggs have combined into the mixture.

3. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

4. Heat a flat pan or skillet to medium. Grease with melted butter.

5. Pour roughly 1/4 cup of batter slowly into the middle of the pan and smooth out into a round. Drop a few blueberries onto the pancake before it cooks through. Cook pancake for roughly 1-2 minutes or until the surface is bubbly and then flip it over. Cook for further 1-2 minutes. Repeat for remaining batter. (I cheated in this step, I just added the blueberries to my batter in the mixing bowl and scooped the whole lot out…:P) Use up roughly 1.5 cups of blueberries for the pancakes.

6. In a separate pot, heat remaining blueberries (about 1/2 to 1 cup) with 1/4 cup sugar until juicy and heated through. Add a little bit of water if using fresh blueberries.

7. Remember to keep cooked pancakes in a warm place (such as in an oven or cover with a warm damp tea towel. Serve pancakes with blueberry sauce and/or maple syrup.

Since I started the liquor business I haven’t really had the time to visit the city much so I was enwrapped when I was invited to sample the menu at Sake Restaurant & Bar one summers night a few weeks ago at the newly revamped Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre.

Sake Restaurant & Bar is a Japanese fusion restaurant located on the lower floor of Hamer Hall and boasts one of the best views in Melbourne. The earthy tones and upbeat decor coupled with the stunning views is a perfect combination for afterwork drinks and that special occasion.

Due to the location of my shop and the crazy city traffic, I was slightly late to dinner even though I left work nice and early. Not liking to be late to such events, I walked the fastest I could (or ran rather…) in the 30 something degree heat all the way from my far away parking spot to the restaurant.

A lovely waitress welcomed me at the door and brought me to my waiting companions along with a refreshing and even more welcoming cocktail that is a Japanese twist to the Tom Collins.

The drinks menu and extensive sake list has been hand picked by sommelier and bar manager Alex Watson to pair with the food and comes with some of the most interesting combinations of ingredients. Think rum, umeshu (Japanese plum wine), soy milk shaken with chilli, caramel and cinnamon syrup or Hennessy VS, fresh shiso leaves Jerry Thomas bitters, lemon and egg white. The drinks here can really be considered the pinnacle of creativity and fusion.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while now would know that I love Japanese food, but I’ve never really been sure about Japanese fusion, or fusion of any sort so I was a bit skeptical about the food.

For the first dish, we were served the kingfish jalapeño using hiramasa kingfish, yuzu soy, jalapeño and coriander ($24). The Hiramasa kingfish is procured from South Australia using ethical and sustainable farming methods. This applies across the menu and has been carefully thought out by Group Executive Chef Shaun Presland and Melbourne Executive Chef Rose Ang in consideration for sustainability.

This dish had a mellow flavour with faint citrus and jalapeño combination throughout which went nicely with the fresh kingfish. It was a gentle and refreshing start to the evening. You don’t see coriander or jalapeños in Japanese cuisine but citrus soy sauces are common. I’ve always enjoyed citrus based soy sauces (such as the ponzu sauce) so naturally this dish went down well.

The second dish was the salmon tatami with jalapeño dressing ($29). The jalapeño dressing was quite light in this dish and was creamy. I would have believed it if someone told me it was avocado dressing as I couldn’t taste much jalapeño. The salmon slices were fresh but slightly at room temperature. I rather liked the first dish compared to this one.

These two entrees were paired with a sake called Kozaemon (小左衛門）Junmai Daiginjo made in the Gifu prefecture of Japan ($14 a glass). Junmai Daijinjo basically means the sake used rice that was polished to at least 50% of its original size to give it a crisp, pure and fragrant taste. This style of processing is considered the highest, most premium sakes available and obviously costs more as well. This variety was made in a small batch with apricot and peach notes. I found it slightly sweet, smooth with a spicy kick to finish and went down very nicely with the kingfish.

Our first warm dish was the toothfish lettuce cups with grilled miso-marinated Patagonian toothfish in lettuce cups ($22). This was one of the most well received dishes of the night. They were a little gingery, full of miso and soy flavour and the fish was very tender. It was a well rounded, well seasoned dish made more refreshing with the lettuce. Definitely a dish to be eaten with your hands.

The next dish was the panko fried rice balls with soy bean, bamboo & shiitake mushrooms encased in rice and fried. This was a fusion take on the traditional croquettes. Although I loved the concept, I rather wished it was a little more seasoned on the inside as without the creamy sauce, it was a tad too bland for me. The wasabi mayonnaise on the other side was a little too creamy and heavy. Perhaps a more citrus based lighter sauce would have gone better with it or even with a green tea salt and pepper that Monga Izakaya used would have been great.

Next up was the shrimp tempura with creamy spicy sauce served with yuzu dressed salad. Many people liked this dish the best but although it tasted fine, I felt this dish was the least Japanese out of all the dishes. The batter on the shrimp were not the regular light and airy tempura variety but more like a fish and chips batter. I do think it’s a great dish to have in a bar setting though as such foods make great bar food with some beer.

This dish was huge! Huge is an understatement. I don’t think any table finished their shrimp dish. Just a note though that the regular dish that you order on the menu would not be this large, it’s more like the size of the panko fried rice balls.

The above dishes were served together with our second sake of the night and it’s also from the same sake brewery Kozaemon. This one was a Junmai Ginjo which uses polished rice to at least 60% of its original size. I found this one to be a bit stronger in alcohol taste and a little bit more dry than the first sake.

Our main dish of the night and the most looked forward to dish for many of us was the wagyu teriyaki using 7+ wagyu beef served on sautéed shiitake and buckwheat with yakiniku sauce. I was in love with this dish. The slightly sweet yakiniku sauce went very well with the whole buckwheat and tasted healthy even though it was quite filling. The beef was so tender and delicious it was hard to stop eating it even though I was already so full! Definitely was my favourite of the night. I’d be very interested to cook with buckwheat after that dish as I had never had it in this way before. The grated daikon and shredded spring onions gave it a lighter touch.

This dish was served with a green salad (which was drenched in a citrusy sauce), a miso soup and rice. Similar to my fellow diners, we couldn’t really finish the rice as we were all stuffed.

It was also served with the Two Paddocks Picnic Pinot Noir from 2010. It was lightly sour, refreshing and easy to drink. It was a great match to the beef and a good red for a hot summers day.

Our dessert was a buttermilk pannacotta with passionfruit coulis. Truth was, I was expecting a slightly more Japanese dessert which their menu has but it was still a refreshing and well executed dish. The buttermilk gave the pannacotta a slightly tangy note and made it a bit grainy rather than the usual creamy and sweet version.

We ended our night with my favourite yuzu sake which I picked out as soon as it came out. It has a distinct sweet aroma and light yellow colour. If you haven’t had yuzu flavoured things before, you’re totally missing out! As I mentioned in previous posts, yuzu is a Japanese citrus that’s in between a mandarin and a lemon. It has a crinkly skin and very little juice so generally the peel of the fruit is used in dishes and drinks to give that tangy, citrus taste. If you don’t like the taste of sake or need something less strong to get used to it, the yuzu sake is perfect for you.

There’s no doubt that Sake Restaurant & Bar has stunning views, fantastic service and a great ambiance to enjoy casual drinks or a special dinner. If you don’t mind fusion food, Sake Restaurant & Bar offers tasty and creative dishes to go with their extensive sake and drinks menu. However, it might not be for you if you only like classical Japanese dishes as there are only a handful on offer and whether or not they are made the traditional way, I’m not sure. Even with my scepticism for Japanese fusion food, I still thoroughly enjoyed myself that night. There was not much to fault with the wagyu dish and loved the sake pairings and I enjoyed the company and ambiance even more.

For other reviews, visit Mel: Hot or Not, Almost Always Ravenous, Petit Miam and Amy’s Town.

Question time: Have you had Japanese fusion before and did you enjoy it? How does it compare to classical Japanese cuisine?

Sake Restaurant & Bar
Phone: (03) 8687 0775
100 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne VIC (Lower floor, Hamer Hall, Arts Centre)
http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/melbourne

Disclaimer: Ichigo Shortcake dined at Sake Restaurant & Bar courtesy of Sake Restaurant & Bar and Hot House Media.

Do you consider yourself adventurous when it comes to food? Would you try new things that you’ve never had before? Are you interested in learning about seemingly strange ingredients and different cooking methods? If you answered yes to these questions then the up coming Asian Garden Market Graze is the perfect thing for you.

Some of you may already be aware that the annual Melbourne Food and Wine Festival has already begun (since yesterday). This year it runs from 1 to 17 March 2013 and is jam packed full of yummy and inspiring events for the food and wine lover. That’s over 200 events across Melbourne! One event that I’m particularly excited about is the Asian Garden Market Graze which consists of a series of exclusive gourmet food tours through the Fresh Food Market at Centro Box Hill. This tour is led by internationally acclaimed chef James Tan and is aimed to provide an introduction and insight into the weird and wonderful ingredients that form the foundation of Asian cuisine.

At the centre of Asian cuisine creativity is chef James Tan who had been studying and working extensively in Asia, Europe and Australia in the food industry for the past 35 years. His deep knowledge and understanding of Asian cuisine has brought him many successes, including his award winning restaurant The Mandarin Duck, his one chefs hat Magic City Cafe in Camberwell amongst others. He has also worked closely with celebrity chefs on published cookbooks and shows as well as presenting to charity dinners and numerous Melbourne Food and Wine Festivals. With three generations of catering and hospitality industry roots and through his own hard work over the years, there is no better person than James to lead these series of food tours.

Box Hill is located to the eastern side of Melbourne and can be considered a mini Asian town of its own. I still remember it was one of the first places that I went to with my parents when I was young but back then it wasn’t as populated and it definitely wasn’t as good as it is today for the foodophiles. Centro Box Hill opened its doors in 1895 and consists of 2 buildings forming the shopping centre and houses one of the best fresh food markets you’ll find around especially when it comes to Asian cuisine. One of its success secrets is probably the convenience factor with the entrance to Box Hill Train Station directly inside the centre, many bus routes going past as well as a multilevel car park attached (free parking is available on weekends).

Myself and a few fellow bloggers were lucky enough to be invited to a sneak preview of the tour last Saturday with James as our guide and we even got to taste some of his freshly cooked dishes right in front of us. The base for our lunch was in none other than the middle of the busy food court. If you haven’t been to Centro Box Hill before, it’s like a mad house on a Saturday lunch time with people everywhere eating lunch, buying groceries and just hanging around. So you can imagine just how exhilarating it was to be exclusively seated at one of the white tablecloth lined tables eating with a fork and knife off pristine white crockery.

Before the lunch began, James took us on his tour of the fresh food market, meeting the owners of some of the stores and hearing the stories that they had to share. According to James, roughly 20 million people come through the doors of Centro Box Hill a year, that probably makes it one of the busiest shopping centres in Melbourne I reckon. But as busy as the shopping centre gets with the comings and goings of all the customers, the owners of the stores themselves hardly changes hands. With so many shops next to each other, competition is fierce and is a perfect shopping destination for the price conscious.

Our first stop was the Chinese herbal shop where we perused the many interesting ingredients that even I haven’t seen before. The shop owners are always happy to explain what certain ingredients are to you and of course there was James who was quite in the know about these strange ingredients.

There are obviously ingredients here that I wouldn’t use in my cooking, it was still quite interesting to see the price tags attached and what they looked liked in their uncooked state.

Our next stop was Central Meats where we met owner Yan who has been running the business for the past 8 years. They are a certified wagyu seller (Kobe beef) and the wagyu that we ate later on was from her shop (Yes! We ate wagyu…). Their meats are fresh, competitively priced and stock a wide variety.

Yarra Range Poultry is situated directly across from Central Meats and obviously stocks your usual poultry needs as well as a few interesting varieties such as salted duck eggs, duck fat and frozen crocodile meat. Yes you read right!

Mandy, the owner of Yarra Range Poultry is there to help with any questions you may have about the ingredients and if you need tips on how to cook them as well.

One of my favourites is the seafood shop because I love drooling over the shiny fresh fish and delicious oysters.

Elaine, the owner of Box Hill Fish Market, originally lived in Singapore, then America before finally settling in Australia. She has been in the seafood business for over 30 years in the different countries that she lived in so you can count on her for all your seafood needs. The lobsters that we ate for lunch were from her shop.

After passing the meat and seafood section, we came across the Asian grocery stores with their bright and fresh veggies and fruits. These shops are all family run and are obviously Asian focused so there will be ingredients here that you might not see in ordinary grocery shops. If you have a question about what ingredients go into a particular Asian dish or you’ve forgotten the name of a certain ingredient, don’t be afraid to ask the friendly owners!

The market doesn’t just consist of fresh food shops as we saw. There’s also a myriad of restaurants, cake shops and cooked food outlets that sell pre-made goodies. This shop called Magic Cuisine is a new addition to the centre. They sell pre-packaged Chinese delicacies that you eat cold or heated. Such stores are very popular in Asia due to the convenience and is picking up here as well.

Cathy is the owner of Magic Cuisine as well as Pancake Village and Rainbow Chicken in the food court (below). Pancake Village makes traditional Chinese pancakes with many fillings to choose from, it’s one of my favourite snacks to nibble on while I’m shopping in China.

Rainbow Chicken is probably one of my favourite snack shops in the food court as well, who doesn’t love chicken? It’s not only fried chicken and chicken skewers that they sell though. There are also interesting items such as these spicy ox tongue or ox tendon skewers for the more daring. These are some of my favourites and it’s making me drool just thinking about it…

For all your cake needs, there’s no better place than Cake World. They also have another outlet in Glen Waverley which is our go to shop for all our birthday and special event cakes. Their cakes are fluffy and light and totally delicious.

After an hour of walking around in the shopping centre, my stomach was starting to growl with hunger. It was time for our tasty lunch cooked by James! I loved the mobile kitchen setup in the middle of the food court which attracted a lot of attention from onlookers.

We were served delicious young coconut juice which was perfect for that day’s unbearable heat.

I also loved the table set up with fresh market produce to liven up the scene.

Our first dish for the day was the rock lobster and jellyfish salad with chilli, lime and palm sugar. One of the best things about this event was how we could watch the master in action and take photos of every angle possible. I was so engrossed in taking photos that I almost didn’t have time to eat!

The preparation for the dishes were all done that morning and brought to the location. This dish was skillfully plated by James in front of us.

I was originally a little skeptical about the dish. I love lobster and I love jellyfish but I’ve never had them together. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the textural elements worked together to present such a light, refreshing and lightly spiced dish. There was just enough rocket to give a bit of that nutty taste but did not overpower the dish at all. Overall a very balanced and delicious dish, especially for a hot day.

Now that James had successfully whet our appetites, it was time for our main – sher wagyu and Asian mushrooms with sake, soy and truffle oil. As James brought out the 5 pieces of huge and beautifully marbled wagyu, we were all in awe. Yes I’ve cooked and eaten wagyu before but in that setting with our stomachs growling, it was an unbearable sight! I just wishes the wagyu would enter my stomach at that very instant. We eagerly waited for James to finish preparing the dish.

Wagyu has beautiful taste on its own and is best seasoned well with salt and pepper before cooking to enhance the flavours.

According to James, wagyu is best cooked at moderate heat to melt the fat into the flesh. Very little oil is needed to cook wagyu due to its high fat content. These pieces were cooked for 2-2.5 minutes on each side until browned. It was allowed to rest for a few minutes before cutting.

I was thinking to myself “seriously James, you’re doing this to tease us aren’t you?” but it was a necessary process to allow the meat to cook through.

The dish was just superb. There was oohs and ahhs and mmms coming from beside me but all I could think about was the melt in my mouth, simple, earthy dish sitting in front of me. The meat was perfectly seasoned. I thought James may have put too much salt on but it was just right. The beef was in perfect harmony with the mushrooms and the rich earthy sauce which brought out the natural flavours of the meat. It was simple, but perfect and surprisingly very filling. I thought I could eat all 5 pieces of wagyu when I first laid eyes on them. Seriously.

After such a good first 2 dishes, I didn’t think they could be beaten but James just kept surprising me. His signature dish – black rice pudding with glazed fruit and coconut anglaise – was the perfect finish to the lunch. This dessert was definitely not as heavy as it looks or sounds. I’m not sure just how many ingredients went into the black rice pudding but we tasted many things including light ginger, sour glazed fruits and of course the beautiful black rice. The sourness made it not as heavy and the coconut anglaise rounded the dish off very nicely. I wanted to lick the bowl clean but thought it wouldn’t look ladylike with so many people around. As James described, it was just like an Asian version of the Christmas pudding.

But wait, there was more! We had a sample of chicken feet, ox tongue and tripe from the Magic Cuisine store I mentioned earlier and they were fantastic. Lightly spicy and very tender, it makes these seemingly strange ingredients tasty even to people who don’t eat them everyday. The chicken feet were marinated in Chinese wine first which gives it a light alcoholic taste, mum makes this dish at home all the time so I was used to eating it.

We were also provided with a tier of Chinese pastries which we were all a bit too full to eat but I did have a taste of each of them. They were soft and a bit sticky with tapioca and burnt sugar, coconut and even a slightly popcorn tasting green one (it was slightly salted).

One of the best things about these blogger events is being able to meet the faces behind some of the blogs that I’ve been following since I started this blog. Sitting right next to me was Ashley from I’m So Hungree who does stunning photos. You’ll also be seeing a review about this great event on her blog in coming days!

The Autumn tour is part of a series of Market Grazes to be run twice annually at Centro Box Hill and are registered through the CAE as short courses aimed at teaching people about Asian cuisine and its special ingredients and cooking techniques. You’ll be able to meet store owners, pick up cooking tips along the way and sample foods from some of the market’s 20 retailers before sitting down to a lunch of handmade noodles and dumplings at Ra Ramen.

You’ll also be given a bag of gourmet goodies at the end to take home and use in your own kitchen using some of the techniques that you will learn during the tour.

As I mentioned earlier, the first tour is held tomorrow but unfortunately due to the heavy demand and popularity, tickets have all sold out! Not to worry though as the tour will be run again later in the year so please visit Centro Box Hill’s website for more details.

If you’re interested in finding out what else is on during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, hop on over to their website at http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au.

I know I’ve already talked a lot today but here’s an even more exciting thing I wanted to share with you. As part of the promotion for this event, the lovely people at PR Edge are giving away a $100 voucher to be used at any retailer in Centro Box Hill.

All you have to do is the following:

1. Comment below to let me know of an Asian ingredient that you want to try but haven’t yet had the chance (or guts to!).
2. Like me on Facebook if you haven’t done so already and let me know in your comment.

This competition will run until 11:59pm EST next Friday 8th March 2013. Due to the nature of this competition, it’s only open to people who reside in Melbourne so please make sure you specify that as well. Please make sure you provide a valid email address as you will be contacted there if you are the lucky winner. Good luck my dear readers!!

Centro Box Hill
Ph: 03 9843 3900
1 Main Street Box Hill VIC 3128
http://www.centroboxhill.com.au

Disclaimer: Ichigo Shortcake dined at and toured Centro Box Hill courtesy of PR Edge, Centro Box Hill and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

To my dear readers, did you all have a good Valentine’s Day? I did in a way. Although there was no romantic dinner, lavish presents or even being relaxing at all, I did spend it with my beloved (not that I have a choice) and kept myself busy in the shop. I even set up a little Valentine’s Day display with the flower that Yuye got me and some lovely wines and spirits from our alcohol stash. It’s too bad I can’t just open them and drink it all myself…

I’ve been quite busy as you can see, so yet again I’ve had to neglect my blog for a while. This won’t go on forever though I can assure you, we’re still trying to find our footing and sorting out a lot of admin work that comes with businesses like ours. Once all that is done, I can afford to slack off a little every now and then (I’m actually taking a half day off today!! Woohoo!). I do feel a little guilty for leaving Yuye by himself at work though…just a little.

One good thing about not having enough time to go out these days is the fact that when I have time to write, I can actually get through a fraction of my huge backlog. Some of them have been sitting there for so long that I don’t even have the confidence that I still remember what things tasted like or what I actually did. I obviously still haven’t gotten into the habit of writing on the day yet. It’s hard work I tell you!

One such post that I’ve been meaning to write about was my birthday lunch from last November. Yes it’s been that long……

Yuye agreed to do whatever I felt like doing that day. I picked my brain for a long time and I still only settled for lunch at a hipster cafe. How totally original of me. But I couldn’t help it that it’s what I wanted to do most. Oh and visiting op shops all over Melbourne which he’s yet to do for me. If I had a chance to do that on Valentine’s Day, I probably would have picked exactly the same routine.

The cafe I chose on my birthday was Mart 130. It’s a place I’ve been dying to visit for the longest time because of its interesting location and history. I didn’t actually think it would be difficult for us to find! Going by the address, we drove past it time and time again but I kept saying “I can’t see it, it should be here!”. Then it occurred to me.

Mart 130 is situated inside what was formerly the Middle Park railway station and outside its doors, you can literally see the railway lines going past. This line used to be St Kilda Railway Line but now forms the 96 tram line. So of course, I should have known where it was! After finally finding it and feeling very silly indeed, we had the chance to admire the unique and nostalgic setting and anticipating the coffees and food.

I quite enjoyed the outside sitting area where you overlook some sports fields and the occasional dog owner walking past with their dog. Although not a huge area, it’s lovely as a catchup location with a few friends, I suppose just try to avoid the busiest times since it can be cramped and you may need to wait for a table.

It was Melbourne Cup day that day so there were plenty of people across the road watching horse racing on the big screens and yelling out cheers or boos. It certainly was a cheerful day.

My latte came on a cute vintage saucer which went so well with the surroundings. The coffee was rich and creamy, but did need a tiny bit more kick.

Yuye got a cappuccino (if you haven’t noticed, we rarely get the same coffee so I can take photos of both ) which was equally tasty but would have loved to see it in a prettier looking cup. The art was nice though.

I couldn’t go past the baked braise of chorizo, red capsicum, smoked paprika, tomatoes, queso garrotxa topped with poached eggs ($18.50) which was essentially a baked eggs type dish except the eggs were on top instead. I enjoyed this dish, although I thought it could have done with less chorizo as it made the dish quite salty. Yes you read right, less, not more. Perhaps instead of half of the chorizo, they could have put something else in it like potatoes to take away the saltiness. Since it was there I didn’t want to throw it away.

The eggs though were perfectly cooked with a runny yolk that I love so much. Mmmm egg yolks…

Yuye ordered the smoked haddock kedgeree with poached eggs on top for about the same price (not sure if this is still on the menu). Yuye ordered this dish because of his curiosity and it actually turned out quite nicely. For those of you who haven’t tried it before, it’s an Anglo Indian dish made using rice and smoked fish (the haddock) so effectively a very mild curry rice dish. It was slightly creamy with curry hints and was surprisingly not as heavy as I thought it would be. Yuye liked this dish more than my baked chorizos.

What I particularly loved about the place was some of the vintage decor. It’s these little things about a cafe that draws me in and makes me want to come back. Of course the good coffees and food matters a lot too. Remember if you go there, they only take cash and they are situated inside the station area.

Mart 130
107a Canterbury Rd
Middle Park, VIC

How many cafes do you know that can make you reminisce about your childhood? How many cafes do you know that are run by volunteers and donate money to charitable causes? How many cafes can do both AND make delicious coffees and healthy bites? I only know one and that’s Kinfolk on Bourke St.

I used to work near there but it was a great shame that I didn’t have a blog then, nor was I as much of a foodie as I am today. If I was, I would have been there every morning without doubt.

Kinfolk is completely run by volunteers and part of the proceeds are distributed amongst 4 different projects (specifically in Rwanda, Ghana, Palm Island and Melbourne) to fund housing and education for disadvantaged children and the homeless. Customers also have the chance to donate to the cause that mean the most to them. This cafe is run by up to 30 volunteers. It makes me feel good just thinking that part of that delicious meal and great coffee actually provided support to someone in need at the same time.

What made me reminisce about my childhood were these vintage school tables tucked neatly in a corner of the room. If the waiter didn’t ask whether we’d like to sit there I wouldn’t have even imagined it was for sitting at all. In fact, when I nodded yes, I had a sudden fear that well…would I even fit in it? I have ‘grown’ a lot since I last sat in one, in more ways than just height.

Do not fear Jenny. You did well. With a small suck of the stomach, I was in with no problems. Whether I was able to move about after that was a totally different story. In fact, these tables were slightly hard to eat off as there was a slant on them if you can remember. The lack of room meant it was difficult to move my arms around and to even eat anything, but we dug into our food like children seeing a delicious homemade meal at lunch time. I even had a kick out of nearby diners staring intently at us while nudging and laughing. I’m sure they were just jealous.

Kinfolk doesn’t do the same food at some of the hip cafes across Melbourne. For one, there’s no poached eggs, or many egg dishes on the menu at all for that matter. What they do have an abundance of are sandwiches, soup, salads and the like and of course coffee. The coffees here didn’t compare with BBB down the road, but were still aromatic and satisfied a caffeine deprived me.

Yuye decided to be different and ordered a tea instead. It wasn’t bad tea but there’s nothing that spectacular about tea anyway. I did like the pot and cup it came in.

As there was no egg dishes on the menu, I decided to have as vegetarian a dish as my non-vegetarian stomach would allow and that was the chicken curry with cabbage and apple salad with buttered sourdough ($13). Okay, so it was the most UN-vegetarian on the menu, but you know me, I can’t live without meat or at least eggs.

I was expecting an Indian curry style dish but it was surprising very light and mild. I wouldn’t really call it a curry dish but it was still quite delicious nonetheless. I love the natural flavours of chicken and this dish was able to bring that chicken-goodness out well. The salad was crunchy, slightly sweet due to the apples and went well with the chicken. The chicken itself fell off the bone which is just perfect. It was just that tiny bit on the bland side which is easily fixed with a dashing of salt.

Yuye went with the chicken + celeriac remoulade, fine herbs and lemon aioli in a roll, and yes, we picked pretty much the only non-vegetarian dishes on the menu. His roll was a bit on the small side and I was even wondering whether he had enough to eat but he seemed content. I didn’t find his roll all that spectacular or particularly memorable as it was just a chicken roll.

In fact, we had visited Kinfolk on earlier occasion but as it as just after 3pm, the kitchen had already closed. All we were able to get were takeaway coffees so we really wanted to be back to sample the food and I was glad I did.

What I loved most about this cafe was the concept and its decor, which I’m sure most of its customers would agree with. good tasting food and nice coffees won’t be good without a good atmosphere and beautiful smiles and warm greetings which Kinfolk has. It’s just a shame that I won’t be able to visit as often as I would like with the new business keeping me quite busy from morning till night. Hopefully Yuye would be able to handle it by himself soon so I can sneak out for a good caffeine hit. I’m having caffeine withdrawals as it’s been far too long since I last had one…

Kinfolk
673 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC (Near Spencer St)
http://www.kinfolk.org.au/

It’s been a hectic few weeks with some very exciting and slightly scary happenings in my life. Yuye and I have purchased a business! A liquor retail business to be specific. So for those of you who like to drink, be jealous. Be very jealous.

It’s a shame we both don’t drink all that much but we may need to start so we can sample a bit of everything in the shop. If you’re wondering about hours, my life is now almost non-existent. The shop opens from 11am – 9pm or 10pm on almost every day of the year, we have no plans to hire anyone any time soon. Hence there’s hardly any time at the moment to blog. It might be some time before my life will start getting back on track and I can organise my time a bit better so I don’t neglect my baby (this blog) and my new love (my iMac) and of course my long time lover (my DSLR).

Summer is also behind us. Yesterday was wet, windy and cold. Everything that I dislike. It was a perfectly gloomy ending to my most favourite season. One of the things I miss is being able to cook like I used to, at least until I find a good rhythm to this new hectic life.

One of my favourite summery recipes is the classic Italian tomato and basil bruschetta. Yuye makes a swell bruschetta if I do say so myself. So here’s the recipe to mark the end of the season (although it’s not going to stop me from eating this throughout the year!). It’s great as a party snack, entree or quick and light meal.

Tomato & Basil Bruschetta

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of toasted baguette bread
• 12 pieces of small to medium bocconcini
• Handful of fresh basil leaves, torn or chopped
• 6 vine ripened tomatoes (any in season type), diced
• 1 red onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped finely
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Lightly fry red onions and garlic in a little bit of olive oil, do not brown.
2. Mix together tomatoes, chopped basil leaves, onion and garlic. Add salt and pepper, a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.
3. Scoop mix onto baguette bread, top with torn pieces of bocconcini, add more salt and pepper and balsamic vinegar if required.
4. Serve immediately so bread does not become soggy.

I had a sudden revelation recently. I think I’ve run out of new cafes to visit in my area! Oh what a dilemma. It doesn’t help that I live in the outer suburbs where there’s not all that many shops to begin with. At times like this I really wish I lived in or near the city. For those of you who can pop downstairs or around the corner for a good caffeine hit or grab a beautiful sandwich, I envy you! In the mean time, I’ve had to resort to spreading out to other suburbs to satisfy my cafe finding addiction.

Although not all cafe finds are great for me, most have been not too bad. It’s Melbourne after all. One of the cafes I came across was also reviewed by Daisy from Never Too Sweet For Me called Jam for Joe and is not too far away from home. One sunny afternoon, Yuye and I visited this family owned business situated next to a church for coffee and lunch. It was right after some house hunting in the area and knowing me, good cafes nearby is always a plus!

Jam For Joe is fairly small but still spacious and simple in decor. What made the ambiance that little more comfortable and homey was the fact that the owner’s young son was at the counter trying very hard to take my orders. I love the fact that they’re training up this young one, he’ll surely grow up to be very good at owning his own business I’m sure.

Don’t expect the same standard coffee art here, nor the creaminess and intensity that some CBD cafes have, but my latte was sufficient to satisfy my caffeine cravings and was pretty in its own right.

I was quite hungry when I sat down so naturally I was quite looking forward to the food. The ordering was done at the counter and although the menu seemed limited, the food offerings still sounded quite delicious. Not the usual poached egg type food that the hip cafes in the CBD offer, the food here are unpretentious, large servings and tasty, just what I like.

I ordered the beef burger which was just delicious. The patty was cooked well, it was still moist in the middle and was well seasoned. It probably didn’t even need the bacon but its presence added even more flavour.

It was just that tiny bit too big for my mouth to fit around so I ended up cutting it with a knife and fork to eat which made a mess on the table.

Yuye ordered the fish and chips which was a little smaller than I expected but was unique in how it was presented. The batter was crispy and not too oily and the fish was just cooked through which was juicy and tender. I just wished there was another stick or 2 for me to eat.

Both dishes came with fat chips which was very crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I’m starting to love eating chips this way and I prefer my chips fat over fries any day. The fish and chips didn’t look big, but we were still quite full at the end of the meal.

It was roughly $15 for each, but it’s been a while since we visited and I have no idea where I left that receipt.

Jam For Joe has a friendly and casual environment that’s perfect for catchups over coffee and a bite or 2 to eat. It’s also good if you want to sit and relax with a laptop and paper, since they have wifi in the shop. It’s too bad I don’t live close enough to visit them all the time but if I drive past there I will definitely head in for a quick and lovely meal.

Jam For Joe Cafe
Phone: (03) 9894 7774
184 Surrey Road, Blackburn VIC 3130

It was not long ago that Yuye and I were discussing just what restaurants Glen Waverley needed. It’s starting to turn into Malaysia town with my favourite Hong Kong style cafe, Star East Cafe, closing not too long ago. What’s opening in its place I hear you ask? Pappa Rich that’s what. So hence my conclusion that Glen Waverley is turning into Malaysia Town. It’s not that I don’t like Malaysian food, not at all. It’s just that sometimes I feel there are food I like that’s missing from my suburb.

One of the restaurants I wished there was more of was Japanese. Just as I was discussing this with Yuye, I realised that there was in fact a restaurant that opened up called Monga Izakaya. I never realised it was Japanese until I read its name closely, as those of you who live in Melbourne would know, Monga is primarily a Taiwanese dessert cafe.

For those of you who don’t know, Izakaya refers to Japanese style bars that also serve some food. Even knowing what it means, I was a bit unsure what to expect. Would I see all Japanese desserts? Would there be hardly any food? Monga’s style and brand had been imprinted into my mind so it was difficult to imagine it to be anything else. It turned out to be very impressive. There was a very large variety of Japanese sake (rice wine), imported Japanese beers and ales, a whole lot of delicious and properly made food as well as, of course, a lot of desserts. In fact, it looked nothing like other Monga restaurants apart from a few desserts on the menu.

When Yuye and I entered, we were promptly seated by our friendly waitress who was Japanese. We preferred to sit at the bar counter because we wanted to gawk at the selection of sake as well as being able to chat with the bar staff. It turned out that it was a very good decision to sit there.

Mark, the manager and sake expert, chatted to us all night about various sake related topics which made the meal quite enjoyable. Mark worked at some of Melbourne’s leading restaurants like Shoya, Koko in Crown and Number 8, developing the sake and wine menus as well as managing the restaurants. He is an architect turned sommelier, specialising mostly in red and white wine and in more recent years sake. It’s no wonder the sake list here is so good.

Yuye and I tried quite a few dishes on the menu as everything sounded quite delicious. Just like any good izakaya, they have grilled skewers at a few dollars each. We tried the chicken skewer (yakitori – $2.40) which we thought needed a tiny bit more salt but was very juicy and tender. We also tried the beef ($2.40) which was probably the best skewer we tried and was again very tender and well seasoned. The pork neck ($2.80) was also cooked nicely, but the chicken skin (torikawa – $2.40) was a bit burnt and a bit too crunchy.

We ordered the kingfish sashimi to try as well ($10.80) which was surprisingly quite nice. I was expecting just a few pieces of fish on a plate but it turned out to be nicely cut with roe on top and was so fresh I didn’t want to share with Yuye.

During our second visit to the restaurant about a week later, we ordered this sashimi again. It wasn’t as nicely cut as the first time or as nicely plated, but was just as fresh and delicious.

We ordered a grilled spider crab leg ($12.80) which was delicious however I didn’t think it was worth the price since there wasn’t much meat in the leg and I thought it was a little on the dry side.

We also ordered the mixed seafood tempura on both visits ($12.80) but actually didn’t think it was the best we’ve had. The batter was a bit too oily and not flaky enough but the seafood inside was cooked well. It included 3 pieces of squid, 2 prawns and 2 seafood sticks.

The soft-shell crab ($8.80) on the other hand was delicious and came in a generous portion. We ordered this dish again on our second visit and it came with a different dipping sauce. The first time came with a green tea mayonnaise which we thought was a bit too oily and made the crab too heavy. The second time the dip was a green tea salt using real green tea powder and leaves which we thought was a great change and made the dish even better. We used the salt to season other dishes that needed it as well.

The crab croquette (kani korokke – $7.80) was served with Kewpie mayonnaise (a slightly salty and creamy Japanese mayonnaise) which was creamy and delicious, just how I like croquettes to be.

We were almost going to stop there but Mark recommended us to try the tempura seaweed with fish meat ($7.80) and so we did. The seaweed was crunchy, not too oily and was very umami. It tasted a little like fish balls which I like.

We ended our first visit with the kuzu kiri ($10.40) which is a cold starchy and jelly like dessert in noodle form. It was crystal clear, light in taste and very refreshing. It was perfect after having so many oily and heavy dishes. Usually they only come with one dipping sauce which is either black sugar or plum but the manager decided to give us both sauces. The black sugar was sweet and delicious whereas the plum was sour and refreshing so the two sauces went very well together.

The only flaw with this dish was the fact that the crystal clear noodles were slightly difficult to pick up from the bowl as it was covered with ice cubes but I suppose it made it that much more fun to eat as well.

During our second visit, we also tried the Japanese pork belly ($16.80) which we didn’t like as much. I thought it was a bit too bland and seemed just like a pork slices slightly stewed but wasn’t all that special. The meat was also a little dry.

After my first visit, I recommended Monga Izakaya to a friend and I was told the uni chahan (sea urchin fried rice – $18.80) and I was surprised at just how delicious it was. I know not everyone likes sea urchin but if you do like it, you will love this fried rice. The rice was at a perfect dryness with each and every piece of rice separate but work well together.

It’s too bad that we were too full on the second visit to eat any dessert because there really is a very big selection of delicious looking dishes which is what Monga is good at.

We did manage to have a lot of wonderful drinks on both visits though. We tried the Echigo Beer Koshihikari ($16) which is a Japanese rice lager. It uses a premium short grain rice and tastes quite sweet for a beer. I quite enjoyed the taste of this beer as I’m not very good with dry beer.

We also tried the Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale ($12) which was a hazy amber colour and tasted sweet and fruity. I quite enjoyed this ale and it went rather well with all the food.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’m quite in love with yuzu flavoured things. Yuzu is a sweet and refreshingly sour Japanese citrus fruit and goes very well in desserts and other fruit flavours things like soaps and lip gloss. When I found out that Monga Izakaya had a yuzu flavoured hot green tea, I was overjoyed. It was made using premium jasmine tea along with a Korean brand of yuzu flavoured honey. It’s a great drink when it’s slightly chilly out. Monga did call this drink ‘grapefruit tea’ though but the Japanese does say yuzu and tasted like yuzu.

Mark was very happy that night and decided to have a small drink with us so brought out the Kitanohomare Junmai Daiginjo Nishingoten which is a very smooth and easy to drink sake. I won’t go into the detail of how junmai daiginjo sakes are made but it’s a premium grade of sake made with the best rice that has been polished to 50% of its original size so tastes very pure.

Mark also recommended a new cocktail that he had created and we were the only ones to have tried it before it was added to the summer menu. The cocktail is called Yuzu Mojito ($12) and yes, it had yuzu flavour in it again. It was not minty like a regular mojito but definitely had the refreshing taste and we both loved it.

On our second visit, we couldn’t help ourselves and had to order one of the yuzu flavoured sakes. There were quite a few to my surprise. As I had tried the large bottle of sake already and didn’t feel like the sparkling (middle), we decided to try the Nigori Yuzu Shu ($12) and it was delicious as expected. It was very refreshing from the yuzu flavour and just the right amount of sweetness. If you’re not as accustomed to drinking sake yet, you might want to try one of these as it’s a lot easier to drink compared to the regular sakes.

There’s a huge collection of sakes, shochus, umeshus, imported Japanese beers, spirits and others, all conveniently placed on a map of Japan from where it originated and contain information about each one as well as about sakes in general. I highly recommend trying one of the sakes to go with the delicious food.

I haven’t been back to Monga Izakaya since November 2012, so I’m not sure how far they’ve developed their menu since then but when I went, they were still in their early stages so things weren’t as organised. For instance, the credit card/EFTPOS system was not yet up and running so we had to pay with cash. Since the prices are not exactly the cheapest around, having so much cash on hand is not convenient to say the least. Hopefully the issue will be rectified soon if not already done. Other than this, the service was excellent, Mark was great at his job and provided a lot of insight into sakes for us. The food and drinks were mostly very delicious and I would definitely recommend Monga Izakaya to anyone wanting a good Japanese restaurant or Izakaya meal over a few drinks and a dessert or 2.

Question time: When there’s the option of sitting at the counter/bar, would you normally choose this option or do you opt for the quieter side tables?

Monga Izakaya
Phone: (03) 9560 6774
91 Kingsway, Glen Waverley VIC 3150 (Upstairs)

I’ve mentioned in my previous posts that I’ve fallen in love with reading magazines on my iPad. Although I love reading the physical copies of these magazines, I also love the convenience of having all of them in the one place with easy to use features like bookmarking and sending recipes through email. For those of you who also purchase digital magazines, one name must be familiar to you and that’s Zinio.

Zinio is the world’s largest digital magazine subscription provider, with over 4000 titles in 23 local newsstands in all countries around the world. For me food magazines are my love, but if food isn’t your thing, there is also travel, health, home, lifestyle, photography and many more. I was very excited when Zinio contacted me about their current holiday sales which gives up to an extra 50% off 350 or so magazines from their collection.

Since I haven’t had much internet access over Christmas, I wasn’t able to post this up until now, so hurry on over for these great discounts which will end on 7 January 2013, there’s only a few days left! You can find the discounted magazines at http://bit.ly/zinioholidayah

Zinio magazines can be read on any platform including computer, iPhone, iPad and android phones and subscriptions only need to be purchased once to be enjoyed on all of your devices.

The even more exciting thing is Zinio will be providing 8 Ichigo Shortcake readers a free magazine subscription each for any title that Zinio carries along with these great promotions. These can be annual subscriptions, half yearly or single issues depending on what you choose.

All you have to do is comment below and tell me which magazine title you would choose if you were to win.

The competition will end at 11:59pm EST on Friday 11 January 2013. Please provide a valid email address as winners will be chosen randomly and contacted through email and the instructions on how to redeem the subscription will also be sent to that email address.

Good luck everyone!

For a full list of titles at Zinio, please visit http://www.zinio.com/magazines/.

This competition is sponsored by Zinio. Ichigo Shortcake personally accepted 2 sponsored subscriptions as part of this competition.

Hi my lovely readers! Happy 2013! I’m finally back in action. Sorry it’s taken me so long to recover but I’ve really been quite busy while I was in China, plus bad internet connections kept me away. Now I’m desperately trying to adjust to this Melbourne weather and trying not to get heatstroke…I just came from -2 degrees after all.

This seriously hot weather is actually good for my post today as the lovely Uru from Go Bake Yourself has allowed me to guest post for her. The post actually went up yesterday here but I only managed to find time to put it up on my blog today. Hope all my lovely readers will head on over to Uru’s blog to see the recipe and check out all of her other fantastic baking adventures!

Please note, as I made this recipe in September, lychees were not yet in season so feel free to substitute canned lychees with fresh ones and use water instead of the lychee syrup. If doing this, increase the amount of sugar by 1/2 cup.

While the rest of the world is shivering in their coats and huddling under the Christmas tree to keep warm, we Aussies have got out our thongs and bikinis and cracking open icy cold beers to enjoy with our beautiful barbecued meats next to the pool or the beach.

Christmas is almost always scorching hot for us and we love it. Yes, although we don’t know what a ‘white Christmas’ really means, nor do we understand the concept of Santa Claus in his thick wooly red coat coming down from a chimney, we do still know how to enjoy our Christmas and of course the holidays that come with it.

For us it means an abundance of Summer fruits and delicious ice creams and there’s no better way to enjoy this Christmas than to have this refreshing and easy strawberry and lychee sorbet. It’s time to make lots of it and invite all the kids (and adults) over for a delicious treat. After all, Christmas means sharing and giving, but most of all to party and have fun! This recipe is so delicious I’m sure even those of you in cold places will want a bowl.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I had making (and eating) it.

For the full recipe and other photographs, please visit Uru’s blog at http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/guest-post-strawberry-lychee-sorbet/.

I realised I’ve left writing about Henry and the Fox until a bit too late. Their entire menu had changed since my visit but it would be such a waste to not blog about the place that I decided I’d go ahead and write about my experiences anyway. I might write an updated post after I try the new menu again after I go back to Australia.

It’s not everyday you can find a good restaurant that has fantastic food, service and all for a good price too. Every time that happens (which is not very often) I get very excited. A little while ago, I went to Henry and the Fox in the city after booking with Agenda City which allowed me a 30% discount and Yuye and I had such a great time.

I had never booked with Agenda City before but it stated that the party must be seated within 15 minutes of the booked time but due to the traffic, I was running a bit late. It turned out that it was a lot more lenient than I thought and I was seated with no problems. Our waitress Salla was very friendly and made recommendations while we picked from the menu.

The casual decor gave me a comfortable feel and I see how this place can be very popular with white collars in the area.

While I waited for Yuye who was parking at the time, I had a latte ($3.50). It was slightly watery and wasn’t the best coffee I’ve had but by no means one of the worse ones either.

However, I was very impressed with Yuye’s iced chocolate ($6). The vanilla ice cream is home made and tasted so smooth. It was a perfect harmony with the milky chocolatey drink and for a moment I wanted to order one for myself.

We were offered complimentary organic sourdough bread which was specially sourced from Zeally Bay in Torquay by head chef Michael Fox. It was a very delicious tasting bread with a slightly crunchy outside and fluffy sourdough on the inside. It was definitely one of the best sourdoughs I’ve tasted.

Michael Fox specialises in seafood so we were recommended to try the seafood dishes. For entree we had the popular bug tails ($24.90). I think it was the most expensive entree on the menu but boy was it worth it. I could have eaten a whole dish by myself. The bug meat was very tender and perfectly cooked, the brown rice was crunchy and provided a wonderful texture as well as a nostalgic fragrance in the dish that was in perfect harmony with the other ingredients. The Cauliflower puree was subtly sweet and creamy which wrapped up the dish very well. Yuye and I both agreed that this was the best dish of the night.

We also ordered a calamari ($14) which was delicious but was outshone by a mile after tasting the bug tails we thought. The calamari itself was juicy and well cooked. It was very thinly battered with rice flour so is quite different in texture compared to regular calamari. The dip was a bit like guacamole in that it had a lot of coriander. I also found the calamari to be quite tasty with a sprinkle of the five spice powder.

For mains we ordered a crispy pork belly ($32). The crackling was crunchy but not oily and the orange pieces cut through any remaining oiliness anyway. It was a very fresh tasting dish and not at all heavy despite it being a pork dish which I was surprised about and it was very well balanced with all the right ingredients to go with my favourite meat. But then again, you can’t really go wrong with classic pairings like oranges and fennel.

Our other main was the rock flathead ($29.90). The flathead was crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside, although we did find it a tiny bit overcooked. The smokey eel was very smooth in texture and had a distinct smokey flavour. The half cooked quail egg was cooked perfectly and the yolk was still runny. This is a difficult task since the eggs are so small. My favourite part of the dish was the potatoes actually, I could have eaten a whole plate of just the potatoes.

Even though we enjoyed this dish, we did find it a bit heavy for a fish dish as there wasn’t much to cut through the flesh and heavy ingredients. I found it needed some more zing to make this dish shine.

This was not the end of our meal, in fact, it was far from it. We had a total of 3 desserts. This was a record breaker for us since we usually can’t even finish one dessert. The desserts at Henry and the Fox were refreshing, delicious and light enough for us to finish 3, or maybe even more. I loved all of the ones we tried. The first dessert (which was also my favourite) was the passionfruit cheesecake ($15). It was essentially a de-constructed cheesecake with all the elements pleasingly laid out on the plate. All the colours, textures and flavours felt like they were dancing on the plate and my palate. They worked so well together my spoon automatically went back for more.

This dish needed to be consumed very quickly though as the granita (which provided such a wonderful sensation and texture) melted very quickly but it was a beautiful few mouthfuls while it lasted. I also loved the nuts and crispy bits in the dish as well which represented the base. The yoghurt sorbet was so smooth and tasty it really made me want to get a commercial grade ice cream machine.

The second dessert was the blood orange parfait ($14). It wasn’t as memorable as the first dessert but was delicious nonetheless. I was told it had gingerbread although it didn’t taste all that gingerbread like to me. It was very soft and moist which I loved and the sorbet was of course beautiful.

The last dessert was complimentary by the chef which gave me such a surprise. If I had known, I may not have ordered 2 desserts, but it all turned out well since we gladly polished off every single dessert in front of us. The complimentary dessert was a new dessert on the menu at the time – the mango and coconut sundae. It was a very interesting and fun dessert using seasonal ingredients. I love mangoes so this was right up my alley (although having tasted the passionfruit cheesecake, it was very hard to beat).

If you are wondering how this dessert is to be eaten, well I also wondered the same thing myself until I was told. You’re meant to crack the thin biscuit with the spoon and the ice cream (along with the biscuit) will all fall into the glass. How unique and fun is that?

I loved the taste and textures of the dish, although we found the rice pudding to be a bit too undercooked. After speaking to Michael about it, I found out he deliberately made it like that.

It’s such a shame that the dishes I tasted are no longer offered on the menu. I would have loved to go back and eat some of the bug tails and passionfruit cheesecake again. However, the new menu excites me and I can’t wait to go back and try the new dishes. At least I know that Michael Fox is a great chef so I trust the new dishes are equally as good, if not better.

I originally thought Henry and the Fox no longer existed on Agency City in December but it seems like it is back on so get in while it’s still valid because our bill had a whopping $42 taken off the total bill. That’s 30% off the total bill with no cap. For such fantastic food and great service, it’s the best value deal out there.

Henry and the Fox
Phone: (03) 9614 3277
525 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.henryandthefox.com.au/

The words ‘milk bar’ conjures up a lot of childhood memories. During a period of time in primary school, milk bars were my best friends. On the way to and from school and Chinese school, I’d always stop by one of these with a few friends to buy gobstoppers, red skins, Freddo frogs and the like. For those of you who grew up in Australia, you’d know what I’m talking about.

Back then the cost of lollies were significantly lower than they are now, although I can’t remember when I last had one of these nostalgic confectionaries.

These days, milk bars are becoming more than what they are back in the day, especially Bendigo Street Milk Bar in Burnley. It has in fact been turned into a fantastic cafe. Although it no longer stocks lollies that kids love, there is an abundance of brunch items, coffee, cakes and other dishes that would surely make any adult (or children for that matter) salivate.

I was lucky enough to have been invited by the lovely owners Diane and Mario of Bendigo Street Milk Bar to dine (up to a $30 value) at the cafe. Although it was such a shame I was in a hurry that day so I wasn’t able to meet the owners or have a long and relaxing lunch but I was able to sample a selection of their fine offerings.

The food range from the usual breakfast/brunch fare as well as delicious looking sandwiches and homemade cakes at the front counter. There’s surely something to suit any taste.

If sandwiches and breakfast items aren’t to your fancy, you can also do it the old fashioned way by getting some chocolates and chips like from a regular milk bar.

The temperature was in the high 20s that day. Perfect for a day out, but slightly too hot to sit outside so we opted for an inside table. They do have a beautiful little garden at the back for those who like a bit of sunshine.

I loved the beautiful Spring colours of the flowers in bloom and the veggies that grow on the wall. It’s a great use of space and provides a nice environment for diners.

Although I already had a coffee that morning, I just had to have another one so I ordered a cappuccino. Although it wasn’t the greatest coffee I’ve had, it did have a reasonably smooth texture and well done froth.

The menu had a nice selection of breakfast and brunch dishes, including the classic eggs benedict ($15.90) which I ordered. It came with 2 pieces of ham with 2 poached eggs on top of a whole muffin and drizzled with hollandaise sauce.

The hollandaise was rich and creamy, one of the better sauces I’ve had. However I would have loved a little more sauce since Yuye ate the dish first and he almost polished it all off. I gladly dipped my ham and muffin in the beautifully runny egg yolks though. We also liked the presentation of the dish with the sprinkle of parsley on top.

Yuye ordered the special smoked salmon on sourdough with smashed peas, lemon and mint topped with ricotta salata and dukkah ($16.50). Although it was a tad on the salty side (due to the smoked salmon) we both still loved the refreshing and tasty dish. I was a big fan of the smashed peas since it had the perfect amount of mint. Although I like mint, sometimes it overpowers other ingredients so I really enjoyed the subtle complimentary tastes that this dish had.

Don’t you just love the colours of this dish? It spells Spring in every aspect and would be perfect to have during the hot summer months as well since it wasn’t too rich, nor too filling.

It was a shame we didn’t get a chance to try some of the cakes on display at the counter as we were in a rush to be somewhere after the meal but was glad that we were at least able to make it for the fast but great meal.

Bendigo Street Milk bar is tucked away on a quiet street in between busy Swan and bridge Roads. There’s ample parking out front (although some are permit only) and is a nice escape from the rowdiness that comes with that part of town. Next time I would bring some friends and sit in their garden out the back with a cold cup of juice while I get some vitamin D.

Ichigo Shortcake and Mr Ichigo Shortcake (aka Yuye) dined as a guest of Bendigo Street Milk Bar, thanks to the staff at 360 Immerse Agency.

Question time: What kind of confectionery did you used to eat as a child? Do milk bars bring back similar memories for you as it does for me?

Bendigo Street Milk Bar
Phone: (03) 9428 4196
37 Bendigo St, Burnley VIC 3121

It’s really feeling like summer lately in Australia and like I said in my previous post, I’m not getting any of that beautiful sunshine here in China. The weather’s been in the high 20s and even high 30s in Melbourne on some days and it’s only just December. One thing that I’m sure many people crave when it’s so hot out is ice cream and other frozen treats. It’s so deliciously refreshing that I really can’t get enough of it, to the point that at one stage I had almost 10 litres of homemade ice cream in the freezer. I couldn’t fit anything else in there.

The thought of seeing great flavours at a gelato shop excites me. It makes me scream and then I make a fool of myself, so much so that I reckon my friends were pretending to not know me. A gelato establishment that produced this unthinkable behaviour in me was Helados Jauja on Lygon Street. A few days ago while the weather was still in the 20s after dinner, there was a line outside, full of eager gelato lovers waiting for a scoop or 2 of their unique and delicious flavours.

Luckily we got there just before the big line started forming and after quite a few minutes of agonising thought (I really wanted to try a bit of each flavour!) I decided on salted caramel and 80% pure dark cocoa. The salted caramel was unbelievable. Some people might think it’s too salty but I thought the intensity of flavours was just what I was looking for. I did have to eat it slowly to savour the taste and make it last as it was quite rich.

The 80% cocoa was equally amazing and is a must for chocolate lovers. It was so rich in chocolate that I was almost jumping up and down with joy. Even Yuye agreed that it was nice, considering he’s always against getting chocolate at gelato stores (he much prefers fruit flavours).

I also tried the soursop which my friend ordered and it was delicious, this is definitely not a taste you will find very often, even in drink form.

One flavour that I could never get my head around was durian (also available here). However, seeing as most of my friends are Malaysian, they were all very keen on getting it to my utter dismay. Well, since I wasn’t going to try it, all I had to do to avoid the stench was to stand far far away. I did feel a bit sorry for the shop staff since it was noticeable that ONLY the durian gelato had a lid. Enough said.

We went back for a second visit a few days after and again I had their salted caramel. I changed the other flavour to peanut butter blast but although it was great, it wasn’t as good as the others I tried. I also had a taste of my friend’s Argentinian tea flavour and it was fantastic, I will get that next time for sure. It tasted just like milk tea.

Although the flavours were totally amazeballs, the price tag attached was equally amazing. There are 2 coloured ‘labels’ for the gelato, orange for deluxe and yellow for classic. Orange has a higher price tag than yellow but doesn’t help the fact that most flavours are orange. For salted caramel and 80% cocoa, I paid a whopping $8.60. It was obviously not the cheapest gelato you can get around. However, the quality of the gelato, range of flavours available and the level of service made it worth the extra bucks for sure and I would definitely gladly go back for another serving of that delicious salted caramel.

You also have the choice to eat inside the shop (at the back) or take a tub of it away.

Question time: Do you like durians? Is there any ice cream/gelato flavour that you wish was on menus more?

Helados Jauja
Phone: (03) 9041 2927
254 Lygon Street, Carlton VIC 3053
http://www.heladosjauja.com.au/

I’m currently in China so I won’t be able to write all that much in the next few weeks, especially when I have no internet, however I will endeavour to write as much as I can.

I seem to always be in China though, and always miss out on the best time of the year in Australia – summer. Summer’s my favourite month. That’s when all the beautiful stone fruits come into season as well as many other fruits and veggies but I only had a slight taste of summer and now I’m in winter again. Winter makes me lethargic. I can’t stay in air-conditioned rooms for too long or my skin gets dry and my throat hurts.

Bad blood circulation means my hands and feet are constantly cold so I’ve had to resort to wearing gloves everywhere I go, even when I’m typing this.

I haven’t really done much so far actually, apart from eating and visiting the flower and bird market here in Shanghai as it was right next to the hotel we stayed at. Walking through the market again made me realise just how much animal cruelty there is around. Can you believe there were gold fish with their scales lasered with different colours to create ‘flowers’ or ‘patterns’ on their bodies? I don’t even see how people can find that beautiful when it’s so unnatural. A man completely disregarded the fact that he stepped on a poor kitten at the entrance as well and that made my heart break. It looked only a few weeks old and was very frightened.

There was also a downside to eating a lot. Yes I know you probably can’t imagine how that could be a bad thing. However, a restaurant we went to last night served the most disgusting dish I’ve had in quite some time…and it happened to be lobsters. I don’t want to disturb you with all the details but just trust me that it was bad. This made me realise just how lucky I am to be Australian.

On a good note, we had a lot of xiao long bao (Shanghai dumplings) already and I’m looking forward to having more. I do however miss the summer in Australia. I miss being able to make beautiful ice creams in my ice cream maker and shopping for summer produce.

Right now, I can only look at these photos I took of the mango sorbet I made before I left which is still in Yuye’s freezer. I’m sure he’s enjoying it on my behalf at the moment…

Mango Sorbet
Makes about 2 litres

Ingredients

· 6 ripe large mangoes, skinned, pulped and strained through a sieve
· Juice of 1 lemon
· 1/2 cup caster (superfine) sugar
· 1/2 cup water

Instructions

1. Heat sugar and water in a small saucepan on medium heat. Stirring until the sugar is completely melted. Bring to the boil briefly and set aside to cool.
2. Mix together mango pulp, lemon juice and cooled sugar syrup in a large bowl, leave in the fridge until cold.
3. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions (roughly 20 minutes).
4. Transfer to a freezer safe dish and freeze for at least 3 hours. Leave in room temperature for 5 minutes before serving.

Question time: Are you currently living in summer or winter? What season do you prefer?

The Japanese culture heavily embraces Buddhism and thus Buddhist teachings. One of the concepts that was derived from its teachings is the acceptance of all things ‘imperfect, impertinent and incomplete’, also known as ‘wabi sabi‘ in Japanese. Wabi sabi is an aesthetic that considers imperfect things beautiful, such as an unfinished, rough or unsymmetrical object, similar to many bowls and decorations used in Japanese kitchens and households. If you’ve been to a Japanese restaurant, you’ll likely understand what I mean.

Even without understanding the meaning behind ‘wabi sabi’, I’ve always been a big fan of these ‘imperfect’ crockery anyway. The raw clay colours and rough finishes has a natural beauty to them that’s not present in plain white bone china. It gives me a sense of comfort for the lack of a better word.

There’s a restaurant in Melbourne called Wabi Sabi Garden where I dined with a few friends a little while ago. No doubt they had all the right furnishings befitting of the words, even Buddhist hands as seats at the front!

In fact, the decor of the whole restaurant was quite impressive. The back room where we sat had a tree in the middle adorned with red lanterns that lit up the room at night (although red wasn’t the nicest colour for my photos…).

The garden at the back was one of the nicest I’ve been to in Australia, although I’m sure many higher class restaurants in Japan have such gardens or even better, but I was still quite impressed. The bamboo and leaves add a nice touch to dining outside when the weather is nice.

When it gets dark at night, there’s even a projected ‘pond’ on the ground with moving fish and other imagery. I thought this was a fantastic idea as it saves space and is aesthetically pleasing.

The 3 of us all ordered a glass of yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) sake ($13) which was beautiful, but I did think it was a bit expensive for how much was given.

The menu has apparently changed slightly from when my friend first went there. It has become more tapas like with dishes to share between people. The menu recommended 3 plates per person to be full so for 3 people that would have been 9 dishes. At around $20 a main, I think all of our wallets would have been not too happy so we thought we’d order about 5 dishes between us first and see how hungry we were afterwards. It turned out to be just right with a big bowl of rice.

The first dish we ordered was the Hiramasa kingfish sashimi ($18). It came lightly scorched and marinated in ponzu sauce, garnished with garlic chips and fresh mint. It was a beautifully presented dish with roughly 12 pieces of well cut fish that was both fresh and delicious. As we were quite hungry, the dish disappeared in a matter of minutes. The mint added a refreshing and unique taste to the dish as well. Some people might not be used to not eating sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi but it’s actually a delicious way to enjoy fresh fish.

The next dish we ordered was also a sashimi dish and it was a special of the day – john dory (can’t remember the exact cost but it was similar to the kingfish). We all agreed that the john dory was actually tastier than the kingfish, even though we liked both dishes. The john dory had an extra textural element provided by the crunchy carrots and daikon and the sauce had more zing than the kingfish.

From there we moved on to our hot mains. The swordfish ankake hotpot ($19) was delicious as well. Ankake in Japanese means a broth that’s made with starch so that it’s slightly thicker than regular broth, and thick it was. Apart from being thick, the broth was quite clear and had distinct soy sauce and mushroom flavours. The veggies in the hotpot was cooked perfectly al dente, but I thought it was a little too peppery which some people might not like. This dish went very well with some rice.

Next up was double cooked pork belly with yuzu sauce ($21). For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while would know that choosing this dish was a no brainer for me. It’s pork belly!! Plus I’ve fallen in love with yuzu flavours lately so this was a perfect dish for me. The pork was cooked well and was quite tender but still retained a firm shape. It was only lightly braised though and thought it needed a bit more seasoning. It went well with the yuzu jam as pork is delicious with sweet and slightly sour flavours.

The last hot dish of the day was the grilled black cod that’s marinated in miso ($25). The cod was probably the best dish of the night. Although I found it a tiny bit on the salty side, it was no doubt very tender and juicy and quite tasty. I usually don’t like to order cooked fish in restaurants because it tends to be quite overcooked but Wabi Sabi did a good job with the cod.

Everything was not bad until now. However, we ordered 2 ice creams from the menu – the red bean and a black sesame. Both ice creams were quite plain and lacked in its individual flavours. The red bean ice cream was topped with desiccated coconuts but since it lacked red bean flavour, all I could taste was the coconut. I did like how they added a personal touch with the paper crane though.

Overall it was a good meal, albeit being a bit expensive. I loved the atmosphere and the intricate little details Wabi Sabi put in to the decor. I would love to have lunch here in the garden when the weather’s good to enjoy the outdoor setting. However, I would stay clear of the ice creams.

Question time: Do you like ‘wabi sabi’ or imperfect things when it comes to crockery and household items, or do you prefer the more perfect ones?

Wabi Sabi Garden
Phone: (03) 9529 8505
17 Wellington St, St Kilda VIC 3182
http://www.wabisabi.net.au/

As I’m the ‘foodie’ in the group, people always turn to me for suggestions and ideas on where to eat. But in actual fact, even though I am a ‘foodie’ I am quite indecisive. It always makes me nervous when they ask me these questions since what if my suggestions can’t live up to their expectations?

This is one of those moments when I felt bad about suggesting a place to eat. Even though the food at Pugg Mahones Irish Pub was quite delicious I thought, the fact that they had to turn away one of my companions ruined the night for us. Let me explain.

When we arrived at the restaurant, it seemed quite empty in the front of the house, even though the back room was full of people. It didn’t occur to me at the time that there was a function on. We proceeded to order our meals at the bar counter to which the waiter accepted and we paid and sat down. At the time, one of my friend had not yet arrived. Almost one hour on, our meals still hadn’t arrived and we were starving.

Just at that moment, the last friend arrived and went to the counter to order only to be shockingly turned away due to the kitchen being ‘too busy’. I’m not sure if they would have accepted his order if I had gone up and told them he was with us, but my friend ended up leaving to eat at home instead. This was the first time this had happened to me.

Shortly after my friend’s departure, our meals arrived and we all ate in an awkward silence.

I know this wouldn’t usually happen since functions shouldn’t be on every day, but it did leave a nasty feeling in my mind and I was a bit upset that we couldn’t all enjoy the meal like we should have.

Like I mentioned, the food was not bad. I had ordered the roast lamb special for roughly $19. It was a big meal, with delicious carrot and potato mash and baked potatoes, perfectly al dente boiled greens (asparagus, snow peas and broccolini – my favourites) and beautifully seasoned and tender lamb to boot. I thought it was value for money. They also didn’t cheap out on the gravy which is always a plus.

Yuye ordered the seafood basket ($16) which came with Kilkenny battered fish, prawn cutlets, squid rings and battered scallops with chip, salad and tartare sauce. It was slightly oily, although to be expected since everything was deep fried but the seafood was still tender and not overcooked.

K’s chicken schnitzel burger was small but juicy and tasty. So all in all, everyone thought it was an enjoyable meal. If only the awkward turn away didn’t happen.

We should have ordered more beers to sober up and forget about the unhappy things. I’m sure that would have made things better…

I would still return to Pugg Mahones for a good dose of Irish and Modern Australian fare if I have cravings for this type of hearty food though as there wasn’t much to fault with the tasty food and nice atmosphere, I Just have to be wary of big gatherings before I sit down with my friends next time.

Question time: Has this kind of experience ever happened to you? Would you have stayed for your meal even if a friend got turned away?

Pugg Mahones Irish Pub
Phone: (03) 9347 0202
175 Elgin Street, Carlton VIC 3053
http://www.puggmahones.com.au/

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I can’t live without matcha (Japanese powdered green tea), similar can be said for all green teas in general. I love drinking tea of any nature and any flavour including black teas, but my favourite would always be leafy green tea, especially Japanese sencha.

There’s something about leafy green tea that appeals to me. It’s that sweet refreshing but slight bitter aftertaste and that soothing faint aroma that puts me at ease. I love drinking it after a heavier meal to cleanse my palate, or to accompany a meal when tea compliments the dishes. It’s my drink of choice always at Japanese restaurants.

I recently received an email about a new green tea product that entered the Australian market called Two Rivers Green Tea which is a Japanese green tea brand that is proudly grown, harvested and packaged in regional Victoria. I was very excited to have learnt about this brand as I couldn’t believe my beloved Japanese green tea would be grown so close to home.

What excited me even more is the fact that they have agreed to provide a sample pack of green teas to one lucky Ichigo Shortcake reader!

Two Rivers Green Tea provides 4 different varieties of leafy green teas of which I have listed below.

Shincha

Shincha (新茶) literally means ‘new tea’ in Japanese. This is a well sought after tea in Japan but is a rarer type of tea in Australia as far as I know. It’s made with the first harvested batch of fresh tea leaves in Spring, packing in all the great nutrients and flavours during the winter months. Its flavour is intense with a sweeter finish. As you can see from the photo below, the tea leaves are more lush, green and young.

Sencha

Sencha (煎茶) is the most common and consumed type of green tea that you can get in Asian grocery stores or in Japanese restaurants which is commonly just known as ‘green tea’. It is made using harvested leaves from summer through autumn and provides a more full bodied and sweet flavour, although not as intense as shincha. Sencha means ‘decocted tea’ which refers to the method that the tea leaves are produced. In Japan, sencha refers to the whole class of Japanese green tea which includes shincha.

Houjicha

Houjicha (ほうじ茶) refers to Japanese green tea that has been lightly roasted which gives it a light amber colour compared to the usual green. It also tastes quite different to non-roasted tea in that it gives a lightly roasted or nutty taste. The method of roasting is also believed to reduce the amount of caffeine in the leaves which makes it a better beverage after dinner or for children and the elderly.

Genmaicha

Genmaicha (玄米茶) literally means brown rice tea. It is tea made with sencha leaves, roasted brown rice and matcha (ground green tea powder) mixed together. Genmaicha is also a popular tea that leaves a nutty, fragrant and refreshing taste on the palate.

For those of you who don’t drink green tea all that much, you may not have known that so many different types of Japanese green tea existed, but I love all of these varieties of tea.

I found the Two Rivers green teas have finer and greener leaves and less stalks. I highly dislike the stalks present in other brands available on the market as they often float on the top of the cup and gets in the way of my drinking. Stalks also don’t provide as much taste as the leaves themselves. Two Rivers tea leaves seem more consistent and higher quality than some other brands as well so they have ticked all the criteria in my books.

You can order Two Rivers Green Tea on their website at http://www.tworiversgreentea.com.au or for a list of stockists, visit http://www.tworiversgreentea.com.au/the-tea-shop/stockists.

Now here’s the most exciting part – the competition! If you enjoy drinking Japanese green tea as much as I do then you will love the Two Rivers green teas.

The winner of the competition will receive 4 packets of green teas at 30g each and will consist of all 4 varieties mentioned here.

It is only open to Australian residents (sorry to all my overseas readers!) so make sure you specify that in your comment.

All you need to do is the following:

1. Like my Facebook page
2. Follow me on Twitter
OR
3. Sign up to my email subscriptions

Each of these will get you a separate entry so make sure you write a comment for each one for it to be counted.

The competition will end on Tuesday 27 November 2012 at 11:59pm EST and the winner will be drawn randomly. Please make sure you provide a valid email address for me to contact you if you were to win.

Good luck everyone! I’m so excited at the moment so I’m going to drink some tea to relax.

Note: This giveaway is sponsored by Two Rivers Green Tea, Australia. Ichigo Shortcake received the same sample pack to try as the one in the giveaway but was not paid in any way to write this post. All of the above are my honest opinions that I wanted to share with my lovely readers.

Ever since I turned foodie, my liking for all things vintage has soared through the roof, to the point where I wanted my whole house decorated with ancient furnishings and decorations collected from op shops and junk yards. I loved everything with peeling paint and rusty metals and rustic wood that had been worn with old age. Too bad it’s not something Yuye likes or can even appreciate, calling my collection ‘old crap’.

I’m sure some of you will understand me.

I’m also in love with dining at similarly rustic establishments. Maybe that’s why I love brunch/coffee places so much since so many of them have such decor these days. I was so excited when I visited The Green Refectory in Brunswick the other week since it’s been on my wish list for quite some time.

I know, you can call me crazy, but I loved their driftwood looking tables and mismatched chairs that I asked Yuye ‘is it bad if I bought mismatched chairs for our dining room?’ I’m sure I don’t need to tell you his answer. But it is true that I love the look. I’m also hyperventilating looking at the above photo right now…I want everything on that shelf!

I also loved the back alley and flower pots on the walls. If the weather was a bit warmer, I would have preferred to sit outside to enjoy that lovely atmosphere. It somehow makes me feel more alive.

The dishes on offer was quite extensive and was all written on a board at the front counter. It was a bit overwhelming having to decide while staring at so many words and while standing up too.

I settled for the Eggs Benedict with grilled tomato and ham. At just $10, I thought it was great value. The portion size was quite good too and looked and smelt lovely. Although not the best looking poached eggs I’ve seen, the egg yolk was perfectly runny and the hollandaise was creamy and delicious. The grilled tomatoes came on a third piece of muffin which was thoughtful and made the dish quite a lot large than usual.

Yuye ordered the breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, ham, mushroom, tomato and fresh herbs in a tortilla wrap topped with a whole lot of cheese. All this for $10 as well? It’s insane! I did find the contents of the wrap slightly mushed up and didn’t look as pretty when I cut into it and it was slightly watery and a tiny bit on the bland side, but still quite an enjoyable dish.

As we were not expecting such large dishes, even with our combined effort, we could not totally finish the burrito. All that cheese and eggs really filled me up quick, which was a shame.

What I was a little bit disappointed with was their coffees. I was expecting a strong, aromatic hit but unfortunately the taste of the coffees didn’t leave much impact at all. The reason, I think, was that they use Illy coffee beans which are pre-roasted and ground. Leaving beans out for a while makes the aromas go away and subsequently makes not as nice coffees.

If you’re not feeling too hungry, there is also the option of ordering one of the delicious looking cakes at the front counter. It was too bad I was already way too full for those…

The waitstaff here were very young. I had read reviews about the supposed bad service here so didn’t have high expectations but they were all quite friendly and I didn’t feel at all like they were snobbish. The only downside was the fact that we had to line up to order at the counter, which at busy times, I can see how this can be annoying and of course the less than optimum coffee experience. The cafe was also a bit too cramped so movement between tables were hindered. Other than that the food was value for money, tasty and the decor was inviting so for the food alone, I would come back again if I was in the neighbourhood.

Question time: Do you like collecting vintage items and visiting rustic cafes like this? Or are you like Yuye and consider vintage things ‘junk’?

The Green Refectory
Phone: (03) 9387 1150
115 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC 3056

Apologies for the periods of silence lately, there’s just been so much on my mind and there has been a lot of new and exciting things happening in my life. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to regular blogging soon.

The weather has been scorching hot lately. I love the sunshine and the good mood it puts me in.

The hot weather brings both good and bad though. The good is that it’s now mango season! Just a few weeks ago, I still remember mangoes being something ridiculous like $5-6 each, now I’ve seen $0.99 each and they taste so good. I bought a huge box of mangoes recently so you’ll probably see some mango recipes on the blog soon.

The bad is that Yuye gets hay fever. Terrible hay fever. Especially when he has to mow the grass. The long periods of sunshine makes the grass grow too fast that we can’t keep up with the mowing.

The only thing that I can think of in this weather is to eat ice cream. I still have a few ice creams left over, but my favourite is still green tea or Japanese matcha.

I sometimes think what my life would be like without having come across matcha (Japanese green tea), just like I can’t live without sashimi (raw fish). I love drinking matcha hot, I love it in ice cream form and I love it in desserts like cakes and biscuits. If there’s a choice, matcha is probably what I would go for no matter what the food is. It’s not just me either, I know many people who are just like me.

I’ve made my own green tea ice cream before using vanilla extract, egg yolks and cream like a regular ice cream, but recently I came across Nami’s simple and fantastic matcha ice cream recipe that uses hardly any ingredients but tastes just as good. It’ll surely satisfy any green tea craving.

Matcha (green tea) ice cream
Adapted from Just One Cookbook
Makes roughly 1 litre of ice cream

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups heavy cream
• 1.5 cups milk (or you can use 3 cups of half and half instead of cream and milk)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 tbsp natural green tea (matcha) powder
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Whisk together the green tea powder, sugar, cream and milk in a medium saucepan.
2. Heat the mixture until boiling, keep whisking or stirring until the mixture foams and then take it off the heat.
3. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl, cool to room temperature before refrigerating until completely chilled.
4. Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, this would usually take around 20 minutes to half hour.
5. Transfer to a freezer safe dish and freeze for at least 3 hours (covered) before consuming.

Note: Green tea ice cream goes very well with azuki (red bean paste) or with some almond biscuits. The amount of green tea powder and sugar can be adjusted to suit your taste, I like mine quite strong and less sweet so it may not suit everyone.

Question time: Are you a matcha lover like me? What’s your favourite matcha dessert?

I think every Melbournian would agree with me that there’s really no shortage of great coffee joints here. We’ve developed such an astounding coffee culture that I wouldn’t be surprised if travel agencies start adding coffee tours to their Melbourne site seeing repertoire, if it hasn’t been done already. In fact, I think that would be a great idea! It was definitely high on the list when my cousins visited not too long ago.

I thought I was quite well informed with coffees already since I’ve been drinking so much of it, but Patricia Coffee Brewers in the CBD really surprised me when I visited. I felt like I should have done my homework better. When I walked in, the first thing I saw was the ‘Standing Room Only’ sign on the ground. Without even giving it a second thought, I went up to the counter and asked ‘do you have any tables to sit down?’. I’m sure you don’t need to guess what the answer was. I felt quite silly at that point.

After standing around for a while and my friends have arrived, I walked up to the counter again to make my order.

“Can I please order a latte and a cappuccino for my friend?” I have embarrassed myself yet again. It was clearly written on the wall that they had 3 types of coffees and they were Black, White or Filtered. So it turned out that they only had 1 type of white coffee and that was essentially a flat white.

I had embarrassed myself twice in one day. Regardless, we still enjoyed our coffees immensely.

I was offered a Seven Seeds specialty blend of the day while Yuye ordered a Guatemalan single origin coffee. They may have looked the same, but they tasted quite different.

While my Seven Seeds blend was smooth and strong, Yuye’s Guatemalan variety was sour on the palate. Although both were delicious and aromatic, I think I’m still not cultured enough to enjoy the sourness of some coffees, so naturally I preferred the Seven Seeds blend more. I must say though, Patricia Coffee Brewers were very good at making the perfect froth and coffee art. It was so smooth and beautiful that I didn’t want to break that beauty by drinking it.

While we were waiting for our coffees, we were given sparkling mineral water to drink. This is the first time I’ve been offered this instead of regular tap water so we were all quite surprised. It’s too bad both myself and Sat don’t like drinking sparkling water.

Patricia is very popular with local white collars and there is often not enough room in that small space even for standing so take away coffees are probably in order if you wish to visit, unless if you’re willing to wait for a free window sill.

Question time: For all you coffee drinkers, do you like coffees with a sour hint?

Patricia Coffee Brewers
Phone: (03) 9642 2237
493-495 Little Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.patriciacoffee.com.au/

I always have trouble finding restaurants to dine at on Friday nights. Being as indecisive as I am (and the rest of my friends too), we always tend to leave things to ‘fate’. There was one week when we finally decided on a restaurant only to find out when we arrived that the menu has completely changed and it now only served pizzas and drinks rather than proper dishes we were hoping for. So we went on a restaurant hunting journey around busy Hardware Lane. Not finding anything we really felt like eating, we walked along Lt Bourke St, thinking we might go to a Korean BBQ but only to find ourselves right outside a restaurant called Gaijin Lunch Bar.

First we were just intrigued by the name of the place. ‘Gaijin’ means foreigners in Japanese and since one of our friends is Japanese, we thought it was quite fitting and funny. Secondly, why was it open on a Friday night when it’s a ‘lunch bar’? Our curiosity brought us inside.

The decor of the restaurant was more like that of hipster cafes than an actual Japanese restaurant, with their vintage wooden tables and modern decorations.

To our surprise, all the dishes on offer were very cheap and portion sizes were reasonable with everything being $10 or lower, although I must say we spent quite a few minutes laughing and musing ourselves with how fitting some of the dishes were to the whole ‘Gaijin’ concept. If you know a bit of Japanese, you’d understand what I mean. Think along the lines of ‘kani crab salad’ – ‘kani’ meaning crab in Japanese so this dish would literally mean ‘crab crab salad’. Then there’s Spicy Chick, Crunchy Cow and Dynamite Crunchy Don, just the names gave me a good laugh. I know, I’m easily amused…

I ended up ordering the Karaage Don (deep fried diced chicken on rice with special Gaijin sauce & teriyaki sauce – $9) as my rather boring option, but it was, I thought, the best dish we tried that night. They didn’t cheap out on the chicken and it was still very juicy and tender. The amount of sauce was perfect I thought, just enough to coat the chicken and give a good balance of creamy taste but not overly oily. What made the dish a bit heavy was the ‘crunchy’ tempura bits on top of the salad. I ate it together with the chicken and it was a bit too much oil for me, but it did give the dish a nice texture.

Yuye ordered the Special Tiger Don (raw salmon on sushi rice served with tempura crunch and gaijin special sauce – $10). I normally would have loved this dish since I love raw salmon, but I found this dish lacked a bit of flavour. Obviously no soy sauce is served since there was already sauce on top. It wasn’t overly creamy though which was good since the creamy sauce balanced well with the raw salmon.

Sat ordered the Special Tiger Don as well except with cooked salmon. I found this dish was a bit too oily and creamy, since when you slightly cook salmon, the heat brings out the oils in the fish and for some reason, this dish was extra saucy as well which made it a bit heavy, but it was still quite tasty.

My dish was just enough for me, in fact I barely finished it. However, Yuye and Sat thought their dishes were that tiny bit too little so decided to order one more dish to share between them. That dish was the Dynamite Crunchy Don (baked crabstick, scallop, and spicy mayo served on sushi rice topped with teriyaki sauce – $10). I guess they just couldn’t go past the name! It turned out to be so heavy that they couldn’t finish it. I blame it on the super crunchy tempura bits on the side. They were addictive but made all the difference in terms of oiliness.

It was the best decision to order beer with our meals as the refreshing bitterness really cut through all the oil we had and I thought it was necessary to wash it all down, not to mention it was Oktoberfest but we were unable to book a place at Hofbrauhaus for a drink. The Asahi and Hoegaarden were both $6 which was quite reasonable as well.

The lesson learnt from this experience was that sometimes walking around aimlessly to find a restaurant can result in unexpectedly good meals, and also, don’t over order when dishes are oily. Chances are you will leave feeling bloated and not so healthy.

Gaijin Lunch Bar is open for lunch everyday and dinner from Thursday to Saturday. I think the portion sizes are fine if you’re not feeling too hungry and is perfect for lunch. Most of us thought it was a good find, the food was tasty (albeit a little oily) and especially good if you’re looking for a cheap and fast meal coupled with good service and a smile.

Question time: Do you usually like to under or over order dishes at a restaurant?

Gaijin Lunch Bar
Phone: (03) 9642 3211
361 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
http://www.gaijinmelbourne.com/

It was always a wonder to me that different shaped pasta can have such distinct taste (or rather texture which affects the taste and overall experience) even though they were all originally made of the same ingredients. It’s like noodles in China, there’s thin and thick and round and flat but there’s no where near as many varieties as pasta.

I remember there was an episode on Masterchef, I believe it was the 2012 season, where the contestants had to name the pasta. This to me was an impossible challenge since I could hardly name any of them, or at least I’d have no idea what the proper Italian names for them were.

After tasting many different pastas, my favourite is still spaghetti. I think it has the best chew and surface to coat the sauce.

I also find pastas one of the hardest dishes to style. No matter what I do (or Yuye does) the pasta just doesn’t look pretty on the plate. I’m not sure how people do it for magazines but I’ve tried and tried but with no success. If any of you have tips, please let me know!

Even though styling is an issue, I still love eating pasta. In fact we make it all the time at home, although the lack of styling makes me not want to put them on the blog. Today’s attempt was slightly more successful than others so I decided to share it with you all. It has a combination of tomato and cream which balances out the flavours very well.

Chicken, tomato and snow pea sprout pasta
Serves 2

Ingredients

• 200g roast or poached chicken (we used poached with seasoning as we had left over chicken)
• 2 medium vine ripened tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 10 pieces semi dried tomatoes
• 1 can whole peeled tomatoes in juice
• 100ml cream
• Handful snow pea sprouts
• Handful baby spinach leaves, roughly torn or chopped
• 250g dried pasta (I used spaghetti)
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried basil (or fresh if you have it)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Grated cheese to serve

Instructions

1. Heat a flat pan with olive oil to medium high and quickly fry the chicken with parsley and basil.
2. Add in fresh tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add in can of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and cook down for roughly 10 minutes.
3. In the mean time, heat a medium pot with water and a pinch of salt. Cook pasta in the pot until al dente (cook according to packet instructions). Drain and set aside when done.
4. When the sauce is slightly thickened, add in semi dried tomatoes and cook for a further 2 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat, stir through spinach and some snow pea sprouts, then stir through the cream. Mix well and add more salt and pepper to taste.
6. You can stir the pasta through the sauce like we did here, or you can just serve the pasta with the sauce on top, either way is fine.
7. Garnish pasta with more fresh snow pea sprouts and grated cheese.

Question time: What’s your favourite type of pasta? Do you prefer to eat tomato or cream based pastas?

If you live in Melbourne, you would have no doubt walked or driven past this shop in the CBD that glowed a bright orange colour, not from neons but from fresh oranges hanging outside the shopfront. It has been like this ever since I can remember and that shop is Tropicana Juice/Food Bar.

I reminisce about my university days every now and then, Tropicana is one of the locations that I loved for its beautiful refreshing smoothies and juices as well as the fun and orangey decor. I always wondered just how often they have to change the oranges and whether they actually use them in the juices.

Not only do they use fresh oranges as decor, they also use fresh pineapples on the tables outside. It’s really quite amazing and I doubt you’ll find a second shop anywhere that stands out so much.

The last time Yuye and I visited, it was still winter, but that didn’t stop us from ordering smoothies. What we loved was the Oasis smoothie ($6.20 for large) which had rock melon, watermelon and pineapple. It was a perfect combination and ratio of flavours, making it tangy but not too sweet and totally melony. It would be such a perfect drink for these few scorching days (tomorrow is 34C!!!) although these hot days won’t last. We’re apparently back down to 17 on Thursday.

After ordering this smoothie, we laid our eyes on the specials board saying ‘South American Delight – The Best Juice On Earth, Top Secret – Money Back Guarantee’…our eyes grew wide and we looked at each other. Top secret ingredients and ‘best juice on earth’ just piqued our interest like nothing would. We just had to get it. No matter what. Even if it means we can’t finish our other smoothie.

I’m not sure if we were disappointed in the end. The juice was fantastic, it had strong and great flavours, although I can’t really pinpoint it to any particular fruit. We did find it a bit TOO sour so really wasn’t sure about the best juice on earth claim. But we obviously didn’t not like it either so no money back for us. In hindsight, I should have realised that juices are highly subjective to personal taste so best juice on earth for one might not be for another. The whole secretive factor though is a trap I fall into time and time again, I will never learn from my mistakes.

I never got to try Tropicana’s food so next time I will dine in while sucking on some delicious smoothies and hopefully, fingers crossed, I won’t fall into that ‘secret’ trap again. But with weather warming up, I can sense myself having serious juice and smoothie cravings.

Today’s post is short, as I’m really quite busy these few days. It’s almost 3am as I’m writing this and I have to get up to bake bake and bake some more for my friend’s wedding, then a lot of last minute important things to do before I head out for the bride’s hens and then the wedding is on Saturday!

Question time: Do you, like me, fall into the ‘secret’ trap? Does secret ingredients and crazy claims like ‘best blah blah on earth’ make you want to order something more?

Tropicana Juice/Food Bar
Phone: (03) 9670 3568
213 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000

I really love going to Knox City Shopping Centre, as I’ve found the best green grocer right in the middle of the mall. It’s not where you’d expect to find such an amazing green grocer that’s for sure. Every time I go, I’m amazed at just how cheap and fresh the produce are and most of all, the variety of interesting fruits and veggies that you can’t find anywhere else, or at least that I’m aware of (found bell apples and fresh almonds last time).

However, in such a large shopping centre, it’s actually hard to find a good restaurant. I’ve been to Seamus O’Toole’s Irish Pub and Bar Bosh which were not bad, but choices are quite limited if don’t want to dine at a chain.

During my last visit, Yuye and I walked around twice while scratching our heads at where to dine and finally settled on Lemon Leaf, a Thai restaurant. I was attracted by the interesting chairs and attractive decor, even though we actually sat outside that day to enjoy the sunshine. Although the food wasn’t all bad, they failed to impress and some elements even disappointed.

I chose the Lunch Special Set A with 4 courses which cost $25, this includes 1 entree, 1 soup, 1 main, 1 dessert and 1 drink. It seemed too good to be true for that price. Yuye decided to order a separate dish with rice since it’ll be too much for us to eat if we both ordered the lunch sets.

For course 1, I chose the Satay Gai – fried marinated chicken skewers with homemade satay peanut sauce. Lemon Leaf’s satay sauce was quite runny and sweet. I prefer a chunky and slightly thicker sauce over this one as it doesn’t stick on the skewer as well nor does it have as much of that peanuty fragrant taste. The chicken was tender though.

For the soup I chose the tom kar – a milk coconut milk soup with chicken and veggies. I found the soup itself was quite refreshing and tasty. I enjoyed the slight zing in the soup and the creamy coconut taste. However, the cabbage used in the soup was quite disappointing. It was obvious that it had been cut beforehand and left out for a long time so that the edges of the cabbage are brown and dried up. The kitchen staff need to have enough detail to attention and care to at least cut the brown parts off before serving. We ended up throwing out all the cabbage.

For the main, I chose the green curry with chicken. Green curry is my favourite Thai dish and is something I’d always order as a comparison between restaurants so this was an easy choice. Yuye and I both found the curry to be a bit too sweet and was slightly watery as well. The chicken was tender enough and although it wasn’t the biggest dish, they didn’t cheap out on giving chicken. One thing I didn’t like though was the fact that the rice was just dumped in the sauce. I would have preferred it on the side and scooped myself.

Yuye ordered the red curry with duck $16.80 and it also came with rice. We found this curry to be even sweeter as there was lychees and pumpkin in the sauce. Normally sweet ingredients compliments duck very well but it was just slightly overdone here.

For dessert I ordered the Kanom Toey – coconut pudding served with vanilla ice cream. This dessert was a disaster. It wasn’t the best way to end the meal really. The coconut pudding was so small I almost needed a magnifying glass to see it (ok so that was an exaggeration but it was very small!). You can tell from the photo just how shallow the serving bowl was. I also found it to be quite bland, although I could distinctly taste the coconut, it wasn’t smooth and strong like it should be.

The vanilla ice cream was definitely store bought and a bad variety at that. I almost gave up eating it at all.

For the drink, I just ordered a lemon squash. The only drinks available as part of the set were soft drinks, unless if you want to pay extra for an upgrade.

Overall, none of the dishes stood out for me and some were quite the disaster. The prices still seemed reasonable and the service was good but we just didn’t like the taste of the dishes that much. I’m not sure if dinner is better, but at least I’m not in a hurry to return here anytime soon.

Question time: Do you ever choose a restaurant based on how much you liked the decor and chairs?

Lemon Leaf
Phone: (03) 9887 4777
425 Burwood Hwy, Wantirna South VIC 3152 (Knox Ozone)

Before this week, I’ve only used my ice cream maker at most 3-4 times and I’ve had this ice cream maker for many years now. I’m not sure what the sudden change is but I’ve managed to make 3 ice creams in the past 4 days. That’s almost 1 litre of ice cream a day! Even though the weather is getting a little warmer, making that many ice creams is getting insane. Or is it?

Not for the ice cream lovers it’s not! I’ve already had requests from various friends and blogger friends to come over and ‘help’ me eat them so I suppose at least they’ll find good people to feed. I may have to send out invitations soon since I’m running out of freezer space to fit them all and I still have plans to make more!

There’s something oddly satisfying watching that churner go. It’s hard to contain my excitement when I see little ice particles form in my runny ice cream mixture and then finally seeing it turn into ice cream form. Is it the same for you or am I just strange?

Not just churning ice creams, that’s not going to do it for me anymore, not alone anyway. I just bought a Norpro icy pole mould from Amazon which I’ve seen many bloggers use, plus 1000 wooden sticks to go with it. It looks so easy and the icy poles have this beautiful classic look about them. I love the fact that I can use wooden sticks with them instead of the usual plastic reusable bottoms that come with many moulds these days. I’m always so excited waiting for a package to arrive and this time it’s going to arrive around my birthday! Double the excitement.

Since I had many kiwi fruits sitting there, some of which were quite ripe, and the task of eating them all seemed a bit daunting, I thought it was a good idea to make it into a sorbet instead. Instead of the usual sugar, I decided to add part honey and part sugar for a more rounded and deeper taste. It’s also because I just bought a 1kg of honey.

I can feel a fantastic Summer coming, full of wonderful ice creams and icy poles. It’s too bad I’m spending almost half of it in wintery China again, but of course for a good cause since my grandma is turning 99!

I used yuzu liqueur (a Japanese citrus fruit) which I bought in Tokyo, although the amount I put in didn’t make too much difference to the ice cream mixture. This of course you can leave out.

Question time: Do you have an ice cream maker? Do you use it often? Do you prefer ice creams or sorbets?

Kiwi and honey sorbet
Makes about 1 litre of sorbet

Ingredients

• 8 ripe kiwi fruit, peeled and diced
• 5 tbsp honey (add more or less, depending on how sour your kiwis are and how sweet you like it – remember the mixture always tastes more sweet than when it’s frozen)
• 2/3 cup (180g) sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon (roughly 2 tbsp)
• 2/3 cup (180ml) water
• 2 tbsp yuzu liqueur (optional)

instructions

1. Blend diced kiwi fruit in a food processor until pulp is smooth. Set aside in a large bowl.
2. Combine water, honey and sugar in a small saucepan and heat on medium high, stirring until all the honey and sugar has been dissolved.
3. Cool the sugar mixture slightly before adding it to the kiwi fruit. Also add in lemon juice and yuzu liqueur and mix thoroughly.
4. Cool the sorbet mixture completely.
5. Add mixture to an ice cream maker and churn for roughly 20 minutes or until the desired consistency.
6. Transfer to a container and freeze for at least 3 hours before consuming.