red velvet & matcha cupcakes

After a lot of browsing through numerous food and recipe blogs, i had an attempt at some red velvet cupcakes & matcha cupcakes last month~ (22nd July 2010)

I had just bought an icing decorating set the day before but i realised i had no icing sugar at home so that whole idea didn't exactly work out lol.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Matcha (Green Tea) Cupcakes


I found some left over instant frosting mix and some cherries so this one was done just for the camera :P

Old Town Kopitiam Mamak

Haha it was quite ironic today. So like ah suk goes oh i just wana go out and sit somewhere... and so what did we do? we went out and went for like a 2 hour long walk!! lol! we just wondered around the city armed with our cams looking for photo ops then walked all the way to south melbourne to find out that our destination was closed on sundays! so we walked all the way back to the city again. lol oh well it was good exercise~

First time at Old Town Kopitiam Mamak in QV and i gota say i quite liked it. The whole place just screamed MALAY at you. lol i think everyone in there pretty much looked malay too?

The wall behind the drinks counter was lined with rows and rows of neat condensed milk, evaporated milk, milo, horlicks etc. I suppose it's used as a decorative element but they sure must go through A LOT of that stuff anyways since they are such common ingredients in malay drink cuisine.


When we walked in, i noticed that this place used the same glasses to serve their drinks as Monga Dessert Lounge! lol! I got so excited seeing that special kinda cup there, and here ALL their drinks were served in that exact same glass too...haha not that unique after all i guess.

I tried the special three coloured tea which i reckon tastes like yin yeung! The dark syrup layer at the bottom shouldn't be mixed too much if you don't want it too sweet.

Old Town Teh C Special

Milo Dinosaur

They had a large range of different roti on the menu. The "roti tissue" that ah suk recommend was kinda cool. It was this large cone shape made from paper thin crisp that had been coated in sugar on the under side and drizzled with a bit of condensed milk and some sorta red syrup. Looked pretty impressive so it was a shame to have to break it to eat it lol.

Roti Tissue

Pan Mee (Soup Base)

Maggi Goreng


:: Old Town Kopitiam Mamak ::
Level 2, Shop 11
QV Square, QV
Melbourne 3000

hamish & andy & dessert

hehe, randomly found out the day before that my beloved radio duo hamish (and andy) would be doing signings at 7pm at chaddy last night. LOL. Thought it would be fun to swing by and have a perve as we had never have any better plans :p

well it was a quick perve, but a close glimpse none the less~ as the non H&A lovers with me were quite un-amused at the sight of the massive long line of young fans lined up with DVDs and posters for em to sign... I guess if i had went alone i woulda hung around much longer in attempt for a photo opportunity with em lol but oh well it was still better than a night at home for sure. Still got to see em like 2 m away from me. haha so close yet so far thanks to half a dozen cranky pants security ppl who told me to move away coz i had took enough photos?? errr i didnt even get a single clear one but! pftt.

anyways, dessert afterwards at Monga Dessert Lounge proved to be ust as exciting - well for me anyways..hehe walking in i couldnt get over how imitation HK 80s styled cafe it looked!!! The windows had all this fake scenery, the inside decor looked so similar - tables, chairs, even fake bird cages hanging off the roof!! It was obviously themed that way, but for half a sec the environment really does sorta deceive you to make you feel like you are in HK. hehe and the food on the menu was so typical of dessert places like Hui Lau Shan and local Cha Chan Tengs - instant noodles, macaroni, polo baos and all! mmmm i didnt see any dan tarts unfortunately though. All the sweet soups reminds me of the late night tong sui we had bak there XD


Anyways excitement got the better of me and i was struggling to pick and choose to order coz i wanted to try nearly EVERYTHING. haha. Finally settled for a sago dessert. I'd heard of the name many times and know it's a popular dessert in HK but don't remember ever trying it before. It was pretty refreshing~ I so can imagine these desserts doing their job in summer :P

Sago & mango dessert ("Yeung Ji Gum Lo")

Sago with mango in coconut milk

Ovaltine (in a mad jar/mug thing ahaha)

Actually, I think in the first few moments of arriving, i had decided - I LOVE THIS PLACE! And i desperately wana go back again and again... well at least until i get to try everything on the menu! tehehe :)

:: Monga Dessert Lounge ::
600a Station Street
Box Hill 3128

an arvo with my sis

Omgg finally..that girl has a moment free for me!!! haha. Haven't seen that one for 2-3 months till today since she' went canada and the US. So yeahs, it's been ageeees since we've had a chance to catch up.

Well after some "trust issues" in regards to which direction we were suppose to go lol, we eventually FOUND the raved about korean place tucked away behind the main road.

The place looked a bit odd from the outside IMO...didn't exactly look like your usual korean restaurant, and inside was fuming with paint smells. I guess they had just undergone some renovation work or something. Well whilst ignoring the unpleasant smell, we pretty much took ages to decide what we wanted... and when we did decide, the waitress confused us even more saying they didn't have 'chinese foods' today?? mmm and that meant no famous jajang myun noodles for mary...which was the whole reason why i wanted to try the place. sighs..disappointing! Next time hopefully...! but luckily what we got instead was still yummy though :)

Rice Sticks with Fishcake

Octopus Rice Sizzling Bowl

Well, I had said i would go to this place one day and well today was the day! haha Coz afterwards we went to have coffee & cake at Le Petit Gataeu~! It was a classy little cafe with fancy cakes, delicate decoration elements and glass displays and a window to see into the kitchen where the pastry chefs do their thing lol.

Jiejie's Brownie & Passionfruit Chocolate Gataeu

My mind has gone full blank here... coz i seriously can't remember what mine was called!! :(

Mmm... I actually think you can actually taste the delicacy in their cakes hehe...

All in all, was good spending a RARE arvo with me big sis. x

P.S. it's maple syrup that's travelled here all the way from canada and via the states to get here. haha...bottle reminds me of medicine somehow? Anyways, i don't think i've ever bought maple syrup before, so i don't exactly know if this is how they all taste lol.


:: Han Guuk Guan ::
13A Victoria Street
Melbourne 3000

:: Le Petit Gataeu ::
458 Little Collins Street
Melbourne 3000

syd @ melb weekend

Had suchhh a huge night on friday...! Firstly, it was the first time bec has came down to visit melb, so i was determined to make sure she didn't leave thinking melbourne was crap (even tho it may not be that great anyhow :P) Well they arrived late arvo and were too tired to do anything so we didn't go anywhere except to crown where they had dinner and i watched starving!! lol.

Secondly the korean one was also arriving from syd that evening and a dinner at Hwaro Korean BBQ had been planned to catch up for timmy's bday so i left the girls to their apartment pre-drinks and headed to the late 9:30pm dinner.

It was a rare chance to see that selection of guys from school... funny how it feels like i never really spoke to them much back then yet it still felt kinda comfortable and enjoyable just being in that presence. I guess it just reminds me of school days and anything that reminds me of high school pretty much tugs at my heart lol. I guess maybe it was also the Soju making me feel so at ease too lol Did i mention the Soju??? hahaha...gosh we drank so many shots of that stuff... I didn't realise how nice and easy to drink it was! I must of had at least 9? It was like, every few mins more would get poured in my glass haha and we would just drink to nothing! Not sure how many bottles we went through in that sitting, but prob near 2 dozen if estimating from the expensive bill...which timmy should not have paid! =/

Actually it was an emo kinda night lol. I don't know how to explain why? But yeah definitely very memorable! What became really clear to me that night was how rare it is to have such wholesome good times as you get older and older... and how thankful i am that there's still a chance for us to do this kinda thing after so many years. Isn't it funny how some friends you never expected to see ever again can suddenly appear in your life again while some that were suppose to always be there can all of a sudden just walk out...?? mmm.. And yea, what was said about us being family and all was like one of the nicest thing's i'd ever heard...especially coming from one of my most insulting friends lol. I actually feel the same way too because I see my friends as more family than my real family... and it's not often you get the feeling that others value it in the same way unfortunately... so yea i guess i was quite touched by those few drunken words..

Well anyhow, by the end of it all; the soju's effect was definitely hitting us. I think we made so much noise at and outside the restaurant that the waiters must have been sighhh when are they gona leave so we can close and go home?!?! hehe.. We even struggled to stumble along for 10 mins to get back to the apartment ourselves so we decided to take a cab for like a 2 min ride instead. haha! The night continued at EVE where memories of club 9 came flooding back hehe and more intoxication occurred until we finally called it a night and headed back in the wee hours of the morning.

Soju!!! :)

The few soju bottles at the start of the night resulted in me being too 'distracted' to even be bothered to take proper photos for blogging when the food came and all. XD So unfortunately no decent pics from Hwaro :( even when i did have my DSLR on me too!

The next day, with only 3 or so hours of sleep followed by walking to and from and around the whole city in the cold windy-ness and partly raining weather, i was so tired! We were locked outa the apartment since we had no key...so we re-visited Grecco for cake, though the one we picked was nothing special.

Chocolate Strawberry Cake

By the time we got back into the apartment we just could not be stuffed going out for a big night again. Bec's friends were up for gambling and more clubbing so we left em to it and after a rest, went out for a dumpling dinner! It seems the Hu Tong Dumpling place really IS that popular, rejecting my request for booking!! Sighh, guess we gotta keep trying to finally be able to get a table there someeee day, even if it may be somewhat overrated? So best other alternative was Dumplings Plus! Can't really go wrong there :D

Between the 3 of us, we ordered like 7 dishes! i think the waitress was like thinking umm woaa what pigs? Coz when the food came, it wouldn't even all fit on the table properly haha! And as i assumed, we couldn't finish it of course. However we did do a lot better than i had thought ~ managed to finish 4 out of the 7 dishes completely. lol

Hot and Sour Soup + Drunken Chicken (we were expecting small appetizer pieces not half a chook! I didn't like it anyway though, too bitter...just tasted like chicken soaked in beer)

Shou Zhua Bing w/ HoiSin Dipping Sauce

Stir Fry Green Beans + Fried Salt & Pepper Squid
Shanghai Dumplings ~ Xiao Long Bao

Dumplings in Spicy Sauce (too spicy for bec lol)


:: Hwaro Korean BBQ ::
562 Little Burke Street
Melbourne 3000

:: Cafe Grecco ::
Crown Casino
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank 3006

:: Dumplings Plus ::
269 Swanston Street
Melbourne 3000

cake on lygon

Got called to go hunting for somewhere to go tonight again...it's like we always set out and then get completely stuck for where to go! well i guess there just isn't really much to do at night in melbourne... besides crown? haha.. so after a short stint there, we had to find somewhere else to go. I think me uncle and i seem to have developed an addiction for cafes or something...lol always seem to end up in one. and cafes usually mean cake...!! ><"

Well tonight we ended up at lygon street... lol no shootings there tonight tho. Just wondered down the road freezing cold till as everything was closing up.. till we found an open one and was actually quite busy with people. It looked pretty much your typical Italian causal dining place just like most of the other ones along the same street; only difference was that there were heaps of people bumming around here while the rest were shut at this hour lol. Cakes shown in the displays always makes it harder to resist...haha so gave in as usual.

hmm however it was nothing special. Our cakes just tasted like normal cheesecake actually since there was no caramel flavour in the caramel one, and i couldn't taste any Bailey's in my one either. Misleading names that don't match the flavours!! Anyways, we didn't end up finishing it lol.

Bailey's Chocolate Cheesecake w/icecream

Choc Caramel Swirl Cheesecake w/icecream


:: Cafe Notturno ::
177-179 Lygon Street
Carlton Vic

chippies & delice

Ah suk and me were bored this arvo so we decided to go on a photo shoot down at port melb~ omg it was sucha freezing windyyyyy as day too!! Not many idiots go to the beach in winter i suppose lol but at least the sun was out for periods.

Been ages since having chippies from D'lish Fish (I think the old name was Rex Hunt's Fish & Chips last i was here)

Flake & Chips

Calamari & Chips

Port Melbourne Beach on a winters day...




After our shoot, we headed back to the city and wondered around the streets in search of an open cafe and were quite excited to see that Lindt Cafe was indeed still open!

The place was like so classy and nice man~ The beautiful white interior roof of the building and the decor and atmosphere makes the place feel quite fancy. And the displays....ahh the rows of macaroons looked so cute and all the chocolate looked so tempting! Man looking at all of the colourful prettiness just makes you wanna get em all!! Too bad they're like $2.20 each haha.

We got ourselves a coffee along with a famous delice each and then as a team effort we seriously managed to make a whole lot of "food porn" with just our 2 DSLRs & 2 simple lil macaroons. XD

I think the salt caramel one was super nicee man~ i picked that one just coz it seemed to be their promoted special outside on the board and boy it didn't disappoint; the flavours were like so well balanced and it just had a special taste somehow.

Cafe Latte

Salt Caramel Delice & Hazelnut Delice ~~~

well goodbye for today lindt... shall be back another time to try your cakes! :D


:: D'lish Fish ::
3/105 Beach Street
Port Melbourne 3207

:: Lindt Cafe ::
271 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000

65 degrees brunch

Had brunch with linney today. We went to 65 Degrees Cafe where they had a world champion barrister. However we forgot to tell them that we were eating in so unfortunately we got our coffees in take away cups and missed out on the latte art!!! grrr destined to have to go back again i suppose lol

Toasted Sour Dough w/ honey, cinnamon & a peanut butter like spread...? The bread was veryy hard...

Turkey Focaccia


:: 65 Degrees Cafe ::
309 Exhibition Street
Melbourne 3000

izakaya

Lizzie invited us to dinner for alan's birthday tonight. Was quite a delicious evening :)

We cut cake that lizzie got from a cake place i'd never heard of (regrettably!) just in the city called Le Petit Gateau. Gosh their cakes look divine...even seem lots nicer than Brunetti's and Laurent and that. hehe Even the box looked pretty fancy hehe... we cut the cake at vic gardens food court lol, Dinner was yet to come...and we'd all had seconds of cake already haha!


Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gâteau!

Mmmm rich brownie base, crunchy praline, passionfruit custard with chocolate mousse leftovers~~~


Strange order i know, but after cutting cake we headed to bridge rd for our dinner reservation at Maedaya - a little jap restaurant which is apparently known for it's most extensive sake range available in melbourne. They specialised in izakaya which is a Japanese snack bar style like how they have in Japan, where the type of eating is like you basically just order as you go lots of little small entree/snacks instead of any main dishes. The menu was huge, so many choices of food and drinks (sake,cocktails,beer etc) and all that look so good that it was so hard to know where to start lol. By the end of the night, we probably ordered at least two dozen different types of different foods between the 6 of us! We had started with a cocktail each, till later alan wanted to have warm sake as it was the proper jap way to do it lol we cheers to the bday boy and i just thought it was like drinking a shot so i just swallowed all my sake and was like eww... as i didn't actually realise that everyone else just took a tiny sip. lol opps. Hmm actually sake isn't too bad coz unlike other stuff it doesn't really give a burning feeling so it's probably easier to be drinking.

I remember trying this for the first time in HK with the rich local girls ahah...and i mostly remember us complaining afterwards how it wasn't even filling and it cost us so damn much! haha... but tonight was definitely filling! I'm actually writing this post now coz i'm so full and don't wanna lie down in case i burst? lol. I think munching on the edamame beans was totally satisfying in itself. hehe it's like so addictive and fun to eat! Too bad the only place they are to be found here are in made in china freezer bags which taste like crap.

Well here are JUST SOME of the dishes we ordered haha... I think this is the most pictures for one post I've had to date, but only coz there were sooo many different dishes we had!

Lotus Chips w/dipping sauce that we were offered when we sat down.

Yakitori grilled skewer sets~

Pork Belly (why does fat taste good?)

Ox Tongue

Takoyaki (octopus balls), Scallops, Fried Chicken

Okonomiyaki

Edamame

More skewers - chicken, scallops and a skewer of just CHICKEN SKIN in front there..

And if stuffing ourselves with all that was't satisfying enough; dessert time!! Even though the desserts menu wasn't anywhere near as extensive but yet we were still tempted enough to end up with 3 of the 5 available choices on our table lol!

Giant ice cream ball wrapped with mochi skin ~ yum yum!
Black Sesame Ice Cream & Green Tea Ice Cream

Green Tea Chocolate Fondue set

Anyways it was a neat little place with good food, good atmosphere and pretty good service too. I really like how with this izakaya dining style you can just relax, drink and chat and just order snacks to share as you go. I definitely wanna go back some day.

:: Maedaya Sake & Grill ::
400 Bridge Road
Richmond 3121