apollo bay & the 12 apostles

I was a bit worried yesterday, since I hadn't been to the great ocean road since I was a little kid... and for all I could remember it was just FAR FAR away. Over 4 hours drive to get there to be more accurate! But luckily it wasn't too bad in regards to my old friend - travel sickness... since I managed to sleep during all the twisty turny bits of the drive lol. The drive back was much worse though, viability was down to like 10-15m ahead with fully thick fog all around us in the darkness. It felt like something would sooner or later jump out at us like in a scene from a horror movie almost hehe.

Anyways, on the way there, we stopped off at Apollo Bay for lunch. Everyone suddenly craved fish and chips from the busy local store across the road to where we parked (even though we had like over A KILO of chicken loaf + cheese, tuna, veg, bread and everything to make like 30 sandwiches haha plus like a dozen bag of chips and other snacks!).

But of course, we gave in! =D



Some of the sights we took in at the12 (now 8) apostles in Port Campbell


At dusk~


:: Iluka ::
65-71 Great Ocean Road
Apollo Bay Vic. 3233

my midnight bake

We're going for a day trip to the great ocean road tomorrow and I can't sleep even though it's almost 4am... I came home after work at like 10pm and got started baking...and didnt finish washing up and everything till like an hour or so ago...so tired but seeing as I'm not exactly sleepy, I might as well post this while I'm still awake :)

My attempt at some good old aussie lamingtons to take on our road trip...


And this is a first attempt from an adapted recipe for chewy choc/honey cookies... though they kinda turned harder when they cooled... (oh and forgive their uglyness XD)

the cupcake family

If you ever walk through Red Cape Lane in QV, you'll be sure to notice "The Cupcake Family" - a cute little store with dozens and dozens of colourful little cupcakes and macaroons lined up in the window display. It definately catches people's attention as they walk by and a lot of people can't help but pause and have a look at all the cutely decorated variety of cupcakes sitting there.



After passing it many a times since it's opening, I finally had a chance to have a taste yesterday! I didn't know which to pick man....I wanted em all coz they all looked so nice!! hehe. I was under pressure so I randomly chose the lemon one; their "signature lemon cupcake and fresh lemon custard filling. Garnished with lemon buttercream and our own mini lemon yoyo cookie with real vanilla beans".

Lemony Sunshine Cupcake + Mocha ($5)

Inside half eaten cupcake, there's lemon custard


Hehe pretty cupcakes make me :)

But actually to be honest; they may have all looked really really nice and all, but the one I had tasted pretty average. It was too dry and coarse for my liking...it didn't seem very freshly baked or something? Maybe they've been sitting in the window for too long? Hmm well I suppose their expensive prices are for the looks and packaging rather than for the taste.



:: The Cupcake Family ::
22 Red Cape Lane QV Centre
Melbourne 3000

cafe giraffe following an epic fail

Ok let's talk about a tragic FAIL that happened almost 2 weeks ago. Wisdoms were out, wounds were healing = was completely craving for dumplings! At first we set out in search of so called raved-about places around the city, but forgetting to plan ahead and book, or have much of a clue where we were walking to kinda made it suck. To make things even worse we spent a good half hour or so walking in the pouring rain from place to place to find that it was all full or seemed dodge... Thus we finally just gave up as we were drenched from head to toe, and settled for this horrible crappy place in Chinatown.

A rude man at the door offered us a menu that stated $12 all you can eat... and gave us no option as to order anything else, but we were just cbf anymore so we went yeah ok whatever. haha. The so-called dumplings and buns and shit were just dumped on our table and were either cold or came from a microwaved packet!!! It was pretty slack...but I had to laugh man! Funny as realising how we landed ourselves in such a crappy place. It was probably one of the worst dining experiences I've had in Melbourne... surely you'd think such a well reviewed restaurant would be able to do better than that? But for some reason the mass number of Aussies eating in there didn't seem to mind. I guess maybe because they thought that they were actually getting authentic Chinese food for their money eh.

Obviously microwaved heated buns served to us still in their plastic packaging =.=


Anyways we quickly left the shockingly disappointing joint, and I convinced the boys that I'd take em to somewhere actually NICE! haha... and well Cafe Giraffe definitely impressed! Lucky for me or I'd probably never hear the end of what a epic failure of a place I had chose. hehe.

Seriously, Giraffe Cafe has got to me one of the coolest hangouts around Melbourne! It's the cutest lil homey style cafe I've ever been to...


I had discovered this special little cafe one day on facebook as I was stumbling through friend's photos who had been and from seeing the atmosphere, I knew I just had to go see the place for myself! And ever since then I've dragged a number of friends along to show em how cool it is~ I just love the relaxed casual environment...makes you feel so comfy being there. The whole place is like a photographer's playground! hehe And from what I've gathered...people go there for more than the decor and the food...but maybe coz of certain *cough*...waitresses... lol



Cheesecake~

Cheesecake after being half eaten but disguised in photo~


Anyhows, since my uncle >.> is being a bitch atm and hasn't given me photos yet, I have brightened up this post with random giraffe cafe photos I took that day and last year. =D


:: Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant ::
23 Tattersalls Lane
Melbourne 3000

:: Cafe Giraffe ::
302 Little Lonsdale Street
Melbourne 3000

budda's day festival

After waking up this morning and realising that I had nothing better to do today... I decided that I may as well go to the Budda's day multicultural festival down at federation square, seeing as though the weather was nice and sunny.




Well I was hoping to see more than the few food booths there, but there only seemed to be only like 10 or so...and a few of em pretty much were selling the same thing. All the food there was vegetarian - not that I would have really noticed though. And the theme amongst the stalls was pretty much deep fried this or that.

My piece of $1 fried sushi~

I'm not too sure why you'd wana deep fry something meant to be fresh and cool... but it actually did taste pretty good! haha.

I also bought this "Taiwanese Fried Beancurd" - it's like a thin and crispy skin layer around this smooth delicate tofu on the inside. I think its a variation of the stinky tofu you get in asia, just without the stink! Since I doubt the people here would be able to handle that smell. lol But man these festival things always make me miss street stalls in HK!!

Imitation fried oysters - made with eggplant or something apparently. They tasted pretty realistic I'd say.

Veggie Curry

Steamed Man Tou

:: Budda's Day Multicultral Festival ::
Federation Square
Melbourne 3000

dessert before dinner

Yet again, we wondered around the city tonight unsure of where to go since Cafe Giraffe would close soon and San Churro was fully packed out...but luckily we found ourselves a table at a very crowded Max Brenner where the boys enjoyed having their perve haha.
Not sure why I had dessert before I even had dinner that night... but oh wells lol.

Peanut Butter Ice Chockie

Milk Chocolat

My yummy Belgium Waffle with Ice Cream/Strawberries/Banana



:: Max Brenmer ::
QV Square
210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne 3000

dumplings & hot chocolate

A very satisfying day today!

After the unsuccessfully tragic dumpling search last friday, we made it to a decent dumpling restaurant finally. We parked the care at Crown, so it was a quite the loooong walk to Swanston St. but when we finally got there at like 4pm (being our lunch) - it somehow just made everything taste even better I reckon! haha so we kinda overestimated out hunger and ended up ordering more than we could digest...lol

(Bad quality photos since I only had my phone on me at the time)


Radish Puff Buns

Pan Fried Lamb Buns?

Steamed Pork Dumplings

Shanghai Dumpings - Xiao Long Bao!


After walking some of that off, we ended up at San Churros where I got to try their famous Hot & Cold for the first time. It's like white chocolate ice cream floating in thick rich hot chocolate. The unique texture you get from the two contrasts is so awesome... loved it!

Hot & Cold~




:: Dumplings Plus ::
269 Swanston St.
Melbourne 3000

:: San Churro ::
QV Square
Swanston St.
Melbourne 3000

it all started with pancakes

Being someone who prefers late nights and sleep ins... the idea of a night cafe open till 2am seemed perfect! Better yet they did pancakes - the traditional old school way! So on a chilly night after finishing work yesterday, some friends and I took a gamble and drove down there in search of this place called Stokers.



When we got there, let's just say the exterior wasn't exactly appealing... the place looked more like a old deserted run down building rather than any sort of eatery. However upon entry I realised that it's looks were definitely deceiving, as inside was a dim, warm and cosy little place with wooden tables and benches and a big red log fire in the middle of the room.






Behind the counter was a old fashioned looking kitchen where we could see the pancakes being made on an ancient styled stove and oven - to keep em nice and warm for serving since it took quite a while for em to bring our pancakes out.



We ordered some drinks along with the lemon/sugar pancake and the honey/almond pancake.
Delicioussss & warm served with vanilla ice cream~



Hehe not bad at all! Hopefully we can go back there again next time.

:: Stokers Coffee Lounge ::
1033 Heidelberg Road
Ivanhoe 3079

the birth of my lil foodie blog

And... thus my very own food blog is born!!

So the idea to start this, sorta suddenly hit me before when I was out with friends... Why should I keep all the yummy-ness around me all to myself? Might as well share it with everyone~ And PLUS I have an excuse to put my two passions into action > photography and food~

But I suppose no one will really come across this and read much into this but nevertheless it's still worth my while, because I know for sure that I shall enjoy documenting my own experiences...simply just because I CAN! :)