Food, Drinks n' Sun

Good Food & Wine Show 2011 (Post Show)

2011-08-06T00:15:00.001+08:00

Did you go to the Good Food & Wine Show on previous weekend? If you did, I hope you enjoyed it. I'm always a fan of Food & Wine Show, being such a massive foodie, it's just like going to a wonderland. Thanks to Devahasdin for the sponsored tickets to the event, me and my friend had a blast.

We decided to go on the Sunday session, because I liked the crowd (not so good for photo blogging, so please bear with my crappy photo framing). Although it seemed like it was crowded than last year, this year's exhibition stands were well apart with plenty of room for traffic flow and it also provided a bigger celebrity chef theatre.

There were a few familiar stands returning to the show, like the ever popular Luv-A-Duck, Mahogany Creek, the Bratwurst Hut, Turban Chopsticks, Chilli Salt, etc. We also noticed there were quite a few new and interesting stands offering excellent products.

Staff at Turban Chopstick working hard to feed the hungry crowds with food samples

Dare to try all of his Chilli sauces and condiments?

My friends and I tried his hottest chilli condiment and it burnt our tongues so bad that we needed a few glasses of cider to cool down. If you were a chilli wuss, I suggest you avoid trying anything from this stand (with the exception of chilli salt with chips, they were good!).

Variety of award winning flavoured extra virgin olive oil at Pukara Estate

Founder of Pukara Estate - Bruce, trying to put on a funny face

As we were tasting a bit of cider and a bit of food, we came across Pukara Estate's stand. There were award-winning flavoured olive oil for sampling and ranges of premium flavoured balsamic vinegar as well. A few standouts were their Premium Robust E.V.O.O.(Extra Virgin Olive Oil), Garlic E.V.O.O., Wasabi E.V.O.O., Barrel Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar, Red White Liquer Balsamic Vinegar and their new Guava Flavoured Balsamic Vinegar. These premium products didn't come cheap. Olive oil was $16 per bottle and balsamic vinegar was $22 per bottle. We bought 3 bottles for $50 (show special price).

Boscastle Pies $7 for 4 mini pies

Selection of hot chocolate for sampling from Crema Gourmet Coffee Roasters

Regal King Salmon

Regal King Salmon, a new exhibitor showcasing New Zealand King Salmon. Unlike other smoked salmon brands that have this overly salty and fishy after taste that we all accustomed to (which are from Tasmania or Norway), theirs were salted to perfection and smelt fresh. They also managed to retain the glorious salmon flavor. I liked it!

Would you like one of these lovely smoke machines from Bradley Smoker?

One of the highlights of this year's show was Malaysia Kitchen. Two kitchen stands were set up. They proved to be favorite stands of the crowd, as there was always a constant stream of people queuing up for delicious Malaysian food samples from Malaysian restaurants in Perth. We were lucky enough to have tried three different dishes that day, which was Rendang by Makan-makan Cafe, Chicken Curry from Curry on Lord, and a Fish and Lemongrass curry.

Kitchen stand 1, giving out food sample every hour

The second stand was a demonstration kitchen, which a cooking demo on various Malaysian delicacies was performed every 2 hours. Remember Alvin from Masterchef season 2? He was one of the ambassadors for Malaysian Tourism and was also a cooking demonstrator in this year's show. The splendid aroma filled up every space in the exhibition hall.

Alvin from Masterchef season 2 performed live at Perth's GFWS

Another newbie to the show this year was Jean Pierre Sancho. An array of delightful and mouthwatering pastries and breads were on offer at this French stall. A display fridge full of colourful macarons beautifully decorated the venue, making the stall almost the center of attention. It was almost eye candy-like to participant in this show. We bought a vanilla macaron and a jaffa macaron. Personally, I preferred jaffa flavor over vanilla flavored macaron.

Macaron flowers, just for display though!

Just like every other year, a WA Food Pavilion was set up to showcase WA's freshest produces. When we walked past the pavilion, all we could smell was the wonderful BBQ aroma from Harvey Beef, Mt Barker Turkey, Linley Valley Pork, The Bratwurst Hut and Mondos Butcher.

Steak Sandwich and Chips from Harvey Beef for $10

There was no sampling here at these stalls. Instead, if we liked to try, we had to pay for a meal. I would much prefer to have tried the meat before buying them. After all, for all the money people paid to get in the show, I'd expected more food sampling than having to pay more. I thought Food & Wine show was about showcasing great produce and educating the masses. In this instance, the tunnel to educating people about importance of good quality produce was narrowed down, which was unfortunately a little downside of this show.

Linley Valley Pork Burger $8

Having said that, I got myself a Linley Valley Pork Burger towards the end of the show to fill up my otherwise boozed up stomach. Although messiness was caused by sauces dripping everywhere, the pork was juicy, tender and flavorsome. If only the bun was a toasted gourmet Turkish bun (just like Jus Burger's), I would have enjoy it even more.

Pork Burger got it for $5, 15mins before the show ends.

Another highlight of the show was the increase presence of coffee exhibition. Among them, Nespresso stood out as one of the most popular stands. Crowd gathered around to experience the latest coffee trend on the market. We could choose our choice of Nespresso Coffee Capsule and were opened to all options or preferences to our coffees (strong or mild, with or without milk, just like normal espresso bar minus the chunky machine). It was a pretty functional and practical fully automatic coffee machine on the market available to coffee connoisseur, who didn't have time to go through all fine processes to produce a fine cup of golden mixture of caffeine and milky nectar. Having said that, I would much preferred using a manual espresso machine, as I'd always enjoyed trying out different varieties of coffee beans that local boutique cafes offered.

Nespresso stand attracted unbelievable amount of show goers.

Apart from Nespresso, there were also other coffee aspects featured in this show. However, I wish there were more coffee education element added to the show, such as coffee cupping or different ways of brewing a cuppa or more participation of local coffee roasters.

Rekorderlig Cider - sweet Sweedish cider

These were like the golden nectar to the palette of cider lovers. They were so good! There were more cider for tasting this year ad Rekorderlig was one of them. There were also ciders from England for tasting and our local Perth hills cider - Core Cider. I loved cider myself and I thought it was often overshadowed by beer and wine.

Inner Bystander's Moscato

Returning to this year's show, Inner Bystander brought in moscato in a keg. We bought 2 bottles last year and absolutely loved it. This year I was tempted to buy the keg home! How could one not be tempted to bring home a PINK KEG full of sparkly Moscato!

Celebrity Chef Theater - Matt Moran and his apprentice.

We also attended Matt Moran's masterclass at the Celebrity Chef Theater. Last year, he dissected a lamb and this year he showed us how to fillet a whole salmon and different ways of preparing salmon. It was an interesting and educating class; though not as funny or crazy as George and Gary.

Wine taste at Riedel Wine Theatre - Dinner for Eight

After all the food, cider and wine we sampled, we queued up for a wine tasting class at the Riedel Wine Theatre. The queue was enormous as everyone was trying to get a spot to learn from the wine guru in the country. Having said that, we were the last few that got a spot for tasting. We ended up sharing a seat for the 4 of us.

Wine expert sharing their knowledge

There were 6 glasses of premium wine pre-poured on our table, from a young riesling to a sweet semillion. The class was free and it was good for those who loved to learn more about wine tasting.

All in all, my friends and I did have an enjoyable day at the Food & Wine show this year.

However, there were some downsides:

Most aspect of the show was the same as last year's, including celebrity chefs. Would love to see more variety of chefs apart from judges from Masterchef, perhaps Jamie Oliver or even Marco Pierre White or Thomas Keller.
We also noticed the lack of food tasting compared to last year. Most of the food in the show needed you to fork out money, it didn't make much difference than going to a weekend market. At one point, it looked like a giant food hall.
Some interesting food stands from last year didn't return to the show this year. I would love to try the ones that I missed out on last year.
Comparing to the show at Melbourne and Sydney, Perth's show looked rather pathetic.

Let's just hope next year is going to be BIGGER and will come with more interactive surprises for all show goers. If not, I might have to consider flying to the east for something new.

Once again, thanks to Devahasdin for the free tickets.

Beluga, Claremont

2011-07-15T21:13:00.000+08:00

I may not be a massive footy fan, but I'm already a fan of Beluga.

Was there a couple of weeks ago for a short lunch with my bestie. Without much expectation, the restaurant was full of local patrons, dress to impress while catching up with their friends. It is Claremont afterall, you gotta show some diamonds, branded handbags and wears designer dresses to dine here. It might sound cliché for those of us that doesn't really fit into the criteria. However, the staff never show unfairness while serving people like us.

Rich ladies chit-chatting away

We didn't make any reservation, so we got a table outside under the sun watching passerby walking along The Lane at Claremont Quarter. It is not a bad place to be while the sun is still up, although the chilly wind creeps into my skin constantly.

The Lane at Claremont Quarter

Instantly, we got the wine list and menu for our perusal. The supervisor explained to us that their wine list works slightly different, they don't categorized their wine in White and Red. Instead, they put them into 5 different characteristic categorization and start off with Pop, Light and Easy, Juicy Aromatic, Bold and Beautiful and end with Sweet Dreams. I find that pretty convenient for me to look for the wine I'm in the mood for, instead of guessing if the Chardonnay is dry or aromatic. They have a pretty vast range of local and European wine, you can visit here, for their complete wine list.

Food Menu

The menu was simple with local sourced fresh produce and seafood-centered, only 4 items to choose for the meat eater. I'm a seafood lover so a limited menu like this doesn't really bother me. But, the Inside Out Potato Gnocchi Ravioli caught my eye.

New Norcia Flat Bread with Olive Oil, Rosemary and Sea Salt - $9

We had the flat bread to start with, unfortunately due to some miscommunication with the waitress who took our order, the bread ended up came out with our mains. The bread had nice flavour, but it wasn't as fresh as it should be, we suspected it could be a day old bread or it wasn't warm up enough in the oven.

Meat of the day - Roast Pork Belly with Potato Puree, Pomegranate & Apple

I had a major food envy when the pork belly came out, it smelled good and the diners next to our table envied too. The crackling was spot on and the meat roasted to perfection. Smooth potato puree, fresh pomegranate and spiced apple made it the perfect condiments to go with the 4 generous slices of pork belly. This is the dish for all pork lover out there.

Inside out Gnocchi Ravioli with Swiss Brown & Porcini Mushroom - $16

I went for a more technical dish, we all know making Potato Gnocchi is such a chore, so is making Ravioli. And this dish, required skill for both. It was a potato gnocchi skin encased like a ravioli with porcini and swiss brown mushroom. I supposed it is a very technical dish to make, it requires skill to handle such delicate morsels, and someone with a lot of patience. Although it only came with 4 pieces, but every mouthful was full of flavour from the garden and personal touch. The size and fillings for the ravioli might not be consistent but i give my respect to the chef who has to make this everyday.

We only had limited time during our lunch, so we didn't get to try their desserts, but I am pretty keen on the chocolate tart, maybe on my next visit.

Overall, the food were great and the service were friendly. Some of the staff may seem to be an amateur, but the overall experience were pretty ok. I will definitely be going back to try some other stuff on the menu and perhaps try my luck on sipping on a glass of cocktail made by Dean Cox.

Food Quality: 4 gnocchi outta 5
Service: 3.5 gnocchi outta 5
Ambience: 4 gnocchi outta 5
Will I be back?: Yes, I would!

Beluga Claremont
Claremont Quater
Gugeri Street,
Claremont
(08) 9383 1638

Winners for tickets to GFWS 2011

2011-07-05T22:42:00.001+08:00

Congratulations to MELANIE L. and TIFFANY TEOW for winning the tickets to this year's Perth Good Food and Wine Show. The winners had been contacted personally via email last night.

So sorry to those who didn't win, but thanks for taking part and thanks for reading my blog.

If you haven't got a ticket to the show, you could buy them online here. Don't miss out on the chance to savour tasty food, I shall see you there at the show.

Show dates:

Friday (15/7) 10am - 5pm

Friday (15/7) 6pm - 9:30pm (After Dark Session)

Saturday (16/7) 10am - 6pm

Sunday (17/7) 10am - 5pm

At PERTH CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE. And, don't drink and drive! :)

Win Tickets to Perth Good Food & Wine Show 2011

2011-06-24T15:52:00.293+08:00

It's that time of the year again where food & wine enthusiast got excited.

Yes, in 3 weeks time, it's gonna be the annual Perth Good Food and Wine Show. An event where all food & wine lovers appreciate and most look forward to.

If you haven't been to the show, check out my post on last year's show here to get a rough idea or just to see how much I'd enjoyed last year's show.

This year's show returning with a bang and it falls on the 15th-17th of July at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The session time are as following:

Friday (15/7) 10am - 5pm

Friday (15/7) 6pm - 9:30pm (After Dark Session)

Saturday (16/7) 10am - 6pm

Sunday (17/7) 10am - 5pm

Either you're a food lover, a wine lover or just there to spot a celebrity chef, there are many programs featured in this year's show for everyone, even if you're only in for a couple of drinks because it's winter now and Perth can get kinda boring.

With last year's great response, there are going be some tweaking and new highlights for more fun. Mondo's butchery classes and Barilla pasta class are 2 new exciting programs in this year's show for those who wants to learn new tricks in butchery or making sausages and getting your hands dirty in making pasta.

Along with these classes, returning to this year's show are Riedel Wine Tasting theatre and Bar and Cheese Discovery Classes. All these classes will cost extra on top of your general admission tickets.

If you're a Masterchef's fan, be sure to attend Chef Gary & George's master class. They shall be there to entertain you alongside with Chef Matt Moran, Chef Manu Feildel and Anna Gare will be demonstrating their culinary skills at Fisher & Paykel Celebrity Theatre and perhaps get a cook book signed at Chef's Book Signing Session.

Another new addition to this year's show is Oxford Landing Estate Restaurant, a tantalising menu designed by celebrity cooks Poh Ling Yeow (from Masterchef season 1) and Marion Grosby (from Masterchef season 2), with each entree and main dish accompanied by a glass of Oxford Landing Estate wine.

I had fun last year sampling through stalls after stalls of sweet and savory goodness and tasting of both WA and other Australian wines. At the same time, I also met a few celebrity chefs and learnt some exciting cooking tips. Additionally, my friends and I also bought some lovely new gourmet products, which we didn't normally get to buy at local supermarket. Although this is a food & wine show, there are also other lifestyle products such as health care products, kitchen appliances as part of the exhibitors.

Tickets to the show (general admission and a Celebrity Theatre session) are priced at:

Adult $31.50
Kids (6-16yrs) $ 23.50
Concession $25.50
All pre-booked tickets include show entry and a reserved seat to your choice of Celebrity Theatre session.

Do check out their website for further details.

If you haven't bought your ticket to the show, or you've missed your chance at other blogger's giveaway competition, I have good news for you *squeal~!*. I have 2 pairs of general admission tickets for giveaway. They are only valid for one day/session and it can be the day of your choice and it includes an entry to the Celebrity Theatre.

The 1st and 3rd person who got the following question right will win this free tickets:

Who are the 2 past season Masterchef contestant designing an exciting menu for Oxford Landing Estate Restaurant?

and

What are the 2 new classes added to this year's show?

Please send me an email at dimsumq@iinet.net.au, with your correct answer, your name and a warm hello. Competition closes on Monday 4th of July at 11:59pm WST. Good luck.

Free tickets are courtesy of Devahasdin PR company.

I am most certainly looking forward to attending the show. I will be going with a group of friends and we are all excited about it since we've been saving up for it. I hope you will be too!

Dao Vien Vietnamese

2011-05-28T11:52:00.000+08:00

While we all know not to expect too much of spectacular experience when going to an Asian Restaurant, except for fast and tasty food. It doesn't bother me much if they were not providing top notch service or the tables were sticky, or using chipped crockery, as long as the food is good. Unfortunately ... Dao Vien is not like the others.

An empty restaurant with tired looking decor

Walking into the restaurant for lunch, immediately gave me a weird sense of vibe. It was hot and stuffy, I wondered if it was open as there were no other customers during lunch peak hour. We waited long for the lady owner to notice us and gave us a table. It was a huge place with lots of table but majority of the small table have dirty dishes that were left uncleared.

Dirty tables all around us

Well, first impression didn't quite make the cut, we were feeling uncomfortable and intimidated. Several negative thoughts were running in my mind, "did we just walked into a bad restaurant?", "is it close already?", "is the food gonna be fresh?", "am I gonna get sick after eating their food?", "so, is there anyone taking our order???". We didn't want to wait for too long to get noticed, we started using the waving technique, yet the lady owner was concentrating on reading her newspaper. Plan A failed, we decided to succumb to plan B - the waving plus vocal acknowledgment. Finally, she noticed us and took our order, though she didn't feel sorry for neglecting us at all.

Vietnamese Iced Coffee

Thank god, we didn't have to wait for the beverage and food too long. The coffee was just alright, I've had better Vietnamese coffee somewhere else, as this one lack of omph.

Pork Spring Roll

My mate and I were in the mood for some spring roll, because it was so quiet and the owner seems not to care much about the customers' experience, I doubted the spring roll to be fresh, I was hoping the filling wasn't off or mouldy. To our surprise, the spring roll was the highlight, it was fresh, juicy, crunchy and nicely seasoned. The chef wasn't stingy in putting those filling in, unlike those frozen spring roll you get from the shop, which was doughy and filled with unidentified fillings. The spring roll skin were light and crisp, it was fried to perfection and dipping into the sauce just makes it taste even better.

Pho of Beef balls and raw beef slices

I had the Beef pho and my mate had the chicken hot and sour pho, both came with 3 different chilli condiments and your usual bean sprouts, Thai basil and mint leaves. They were all fresh, which was a huge relieve for us. Although, the chicken hot and sour pho wasn't outstanding, my mate was quite disappointed with her dish as it taste exactly like packet Tom Yum instant noodles.

On the other hand, my beef pho was quite pleasant, the broth was pack full of flavour. It was exactly like what one is looking for in a beef pho. Having said that, the standard was just above average when compare to other Vietnamese restaurant in Perth.

The ambient and the service was a major let down, whether the food quality are able to turn my bad impression to a positive? Probably not! The sense of walking into an empty and quiet (no ambient music playing) restaurant while the lady owner doesn't seems to care, can be quite daunting. There are many other Vietnamese restaurant in Perth that do really good pho and provide a rather friendly service, some even have a comfortable environment to make you feel at ease.

We were using the entertainment card discount, which makes it a really cheap lunch. So, I guess we paid for what we get!

Food quality: 3 outta 5 spring roll
Service: 0.5 outta 5 spring roll
Ambient: 1.5 outta 5 spring roll
Will i ever be back?: Unfortunately not

Dao Vien Vietnamese
3, Fitzgerald Street,
Northbridge
08 9227 0837

Ristretto Coffee, Howard St Coffee

2011-05-10T21:25:00.000+08:00

Cappuccino at Ristretto

I am professing my love for a cup of well made coffee. A good source of bean, tick; Bannister Downs' milk, tick; well trained barista, tick; passion and love in the cup, double tick.

Flat White

I first came across with Ristretto in some time last year, attending their Friday cupping session at Central Arcade, Perth. I had a cup of coffee that changed my life/my love for coffee, it opens up a whole new world to me. It was my first time trying specialty grade coffee, it has a thick and creamy body that carries a sweet berry flavour with a hint of strawberry - Amaro Gayo from Ethiopia. It was also a day that I said good bye to burnt and bitter coffee.

A quality cup always come from a Synesso

Emmanuel and his partner ventured to Perth from Melbourne with a mission to bring good quality coffee to the people in Perth. They started with a kiosk at Central Arcade, Perth and now they also have a small coffee shop at Howard Street. They also roast their own coffee, sourcing green beans from all over the world.

What I love about Ristretto is you'll never get a bad cup of coffee and they changes their bean almost every week. My only gripe would be not being able to visit them everyday as I don't work in the city. But I will definitely pay them a visit whenever I'm in the city running errands.

Enough said, Ristretto team serve up some really good coffee!

Ristretto Espresso Specialist
SHG18A 160 Central Arcade,
St Georges Tce,
Perth

Howard St Coffee
22, Howard St,
Perth

My Green Hands

2011-04-26T02:33:00.000+08:00

Brand new start

In the past, I failed miserably at growing plants, flowers, herbs and all things green. I think I've inherited my mom's gene - the 'No Green Hands' gene. I always love the idea of having a lushful herb garden at my backyard, so whenever I need the herbs for cooking, I'll be able to get them just right at my doorstep. Unfortunately for me, I've never succeeded in growing them. They were all dead after a month or so, or they just slowly dry out under the hot sun. Perhaps I didn't shower them with much love and care. On my New Year Resolution this year, I've included 'growing herbs successfully' into my long list of personal achievement for the year of 2011.

Went to Bunnings on a fine day, bought packets of potting mix, fertiliser, mulch and seeds. Instead of spending money on planting pots, I've decided using recycle material from various dairy bucket. Drilling holes at the bottom for easy drainage.

As I am quite determine to grow them successfully, I started growing the basic herbs from seeds and follow a strict guideline. From left to right, there're Italian parsley, chives, thyme, spring onion and mixed basil.

After getting my hands dirty with mixing and planting, I waited eagerly everyday for them to sprout.

25days later

Almost a month later, I started seeing my little herbie shoot upward, I was delighted. But the Italian parsley, chives and thyme remain sproutless.

A month later

They were all growing except thyme, which I wondered why?

2 months and 3 weeks later.

After much watering and fertilising, my chives and spring onion wasn't growing as big as I expected, somehow they looked like weeds from far. Whereas, the rapidly growth of basil and Italian parsley made me proud.

4 months and 3 weeks later

They are almost 5 months old now, my basil grew so big that I need to harvest it and transplant it into a bigger pot. I wasn't too happy that thyme didn't grow at all. So, over the Easter weekend, I bought thyme seedlings and Zimbabwe bird chili to add into my herbie family. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to harvest some really hot chili just from my backyard. Wish me luck!

Andaluz, Perth

2011-02-08T15:17:00.000+08:00

Andaluz Bar and Tapas has been on my "Restaurant Wishlist" for more than a year. A while ago, I finally managed to gather my foodie adventure friends to come along with me to one of the most talk about tapas joint in town. When it comes to tapas style dining, the more dining companion you have the better it gets! Which was true as we got to try many different dishes.

We were there on a Wednesday without a reservation (evening bookings not accepted), which came to our surprise that they were full to the brim, mostly with after hour suits wearer, thank god we dressed well enough to fit in to the crowd. Staff were really busy to attend to us and we were left standing in the middle of the restaurant exchanging awkward eye contact with other patrons hoping that they understand we were waiting for a table, so please leave soon...

Not long after, we got ourselves a small table to share among 5 of us, some of us even sharing seats. We then peruse the given menu while waiting for a bigger table to fit us all in comfortably. After much drama with getting a proper size table, items on the menu sounds promising and excited and we can't wait to start our night with good food and drinks of course!

While deciding on what to eat, our wine expert Mr. T got us a bottle of Sierra Cantabria Seleccion Tempranillo '08 D.O. Rioja, ESP to start the night off.

Rabbit Terrine, cumquat & mustard pickle $13.50

The rabbit terrine was on their daily special, it was served with slices of New Norcia bread, cumquat & mustard pickle. A great way to start the night with fats, can you see the amount of fats on the terrine? And who doesn't love pork fats.

Manchego & artichoke croquettes, parsley & caper verde $13

Croquettes was light and fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, however the saltiness of Manchego cheese may have overpower the subtleness of artichoke.

Chicken & duck liver parfait, toast $12

This is a "OMG-TO-DIE-FOR" dish of the night, served with grilled fresh bread, the parfait was smooth as soft butter consistency, it was also encased in whipped butter which brings the parfait eating experience to the next level. Imagine eating a smooth liver parfait on a toast spread with thick butter. It was well executed as everyone has their eyes rolled back after savouring it, the whole table was full of pleasant moans as if the world has just stop. If I could choose the dishes on my last elaborated dinner before I die, this has got to be on it.

Seared scallops, Berkshire pork cheek confit, Alvear PX soaked raisins $26

This scallop dish boast to be their signature dish, it was nice as nothing can go wrong with a combination of pork and scallops. Scallops was cooked to perfection and the pork cheek confit was done nicely, but it kinda lack of WOW factor for me.

Charred corn, green onions, paprika & cumin butter $13

Another favourite dish of mine of the night, the waitress suggested squeezing lemon juice over the corn to enhance the flavour. Which was true, corn was perfectly charred yet popping with natural juices over your palate when eating, with just enough of Spanish smoked paprika and cumin tossed through, it gave an additional kick on your palate and then round off with the acidity from lemon. A simple dish but with bold flavour, it was excited to eat as every bite gave me different surprises. I would love to put this as the side dish on my "last elaborated dinner".

Crispy torchon of pigs head, raisin puree, mustard vinegarette $16

A wise man once said never waste every single bit of a pork. Pigs head might sound gross to some people, but I like to think they are exotic. It was poached and then crumbed and deep fried, clever use of this cut of meat as it was full fat but oh so yummy.

Crispy skin barramundi, fennel & cucmber salad, anise aioli $21

The barramundi was on their special that day, the fish was cooked to perfection and the salad was fresh and crisp. Flavour wise nothing too excited, but was a refreshing and light dish after trying all those heavily flavoured food.

Slow cooked octopus, shallots, preserved lemon & chilli $12

Yellow tail kingfish crudo, fennel & shallos $15

Both the octopus and kingfish crudo was fresh and light, a good rest from eating too much pork and fats.

Lamb shoulder sausage, sheeps milk yoghurt, green tomato & chickpeas $17

Our resident lamb lover can't walk out the door without trying a lamb dish, it was good but wasn't memorable.

Desserts

We have decided that we have had enough of savoury and it's time for a sweet ending. Clockwise from top left: Mastic & yoghurt granita, marinated strawberries $13; Dark chocolate & pistachio torte, pistachio cream $13; Creme Catalana, aniseed cracker $13; Tarago River Triple Cream with crackers and muscatel. We ordered Salted almond praline ice-cream sandwich with caramel milkshake, but our waitress got us the yoghurt granita and marinated strawberries by mistake. Dessert was nice enough to end the night with, but didn't leave much strong impression.

A special cocktail

The place was nice and relaxing, with dim mood lighting and nice tune, we didn't have the urge to go after having dessert, instead we started on a few more rounds of cocktail and martinis. I forgo the usual Mojitos and got myself a cutting-edge cocktail which I don't remember it's name, all I know is my glass of cocktail has star anise and thyme in it.

Andaluz is in fact a great place for people who enjoy vast selection of drinks and great tapas food. If I work in the city, I can see myself becoming a regular. And for those who doesn't, make sure you pay a visit to Andaluz if you enjoy good food.

Food Quality: 4.25 outta 5 buttery parfait

Service: 3.75 outta 5 buttery parfait

Ambience: 4 outta 5 buttery parfait

Opening Hours

Monday - Thursday: Noon - Midnight

Friday: Noon - 1am

Saturday: 6pm - 1am

Andaluz Bar & Tapas

Basement level

21, Howard St,

Perth City

08 9484 0092

*Bookings only accepted for lunch between 12pm-3pm*

Tak Chee House

2011-01-19T00:15:00.001+08:00

I have heard a lot about Tak Chee House serving one of the best Penang Char Kuey Teow and Hainanese Chicken Rice in town, because of that it has been on my "To-Eat List". Unfortunately, every time when we were in Northbridge area, we tend to visit other eating joint instead of them. Today, I've finally gotten the chance to verify it's authenticity.

Tak Chee House is only a small fitting cafe style restaurant serving Malaysian favourite hawker's cuisine. We were there at about 8pm, but the restaurant was full of patrons waiting eagerly for their meal to arrive. There were also some other patrons queuing up waiting for table inside and out of the restaurant. With a good mixture of Asian and non-Asian customer, that's a good sign.

We waited for a good 10-15minutes for a table for two. The table arrangement was a little cramp, just like the typical Asian cafe's table setting in Perth. The staff were busy with orders taking, drinks making, delivering food, clearing table and etc. In terms of service, it was lacking a bit of friendliness, alertness and accommodation.

Penang Char Kuey Teow $10

We ordered the infamous Penang Char Kuey Teow (Penang style wok fried flat rice noodles) and Hokkien Fried Noodle (Stir fried thick Hokkien Noodle with dark soy sauce). Judging by the look of the Char Kuey Teow, it does look the same as the one you get from Malaysia. It wasn't too oily and was loaded with chives, bean sprouts, fried egg and 2 big bursty prawns. Albeit a bit too salty to our liking, it has just the right amount of sauteed garlic perfume and wok fried char-ry flavour.

Hokkien Fried Noodle $9.50

The city where I come from was famous for it's Hokkien Fried Noodle and I've had numerous good KL Hokkien Fried Noodle. It was hard to get a good fix in Perth when the cravings hit. Tak Chee House's Hokkien Mee has got the right flavour and was loaded with seafood pieces, the only problem is the thickness of the noodle, they should be using the thick yellow noodle instead of the thinner kind. With the right amount of sauce coated on the noodle, I can't stop griping if only the noodle were thicker and cook for longer.

We also asked for Sambal to go with the Hokkien Noodle, it costs us $0.80 for a small dish, but it was quite tasty. Despite the chef being a bit heavy handed on salt and staff not being friendly, I don't mind visiting Tak Chee House again to try their Hainanese Chicken Rice as the place was perfume by it's garlicky and buttery flavour.

Do check out their daily special, every Wednesday they are serving Bak Kut Teh (Braised Pork Ribs in Chinese Herbs) and every Friday serving Penang Prawn Noodle.

Food Quality: 3.75 outta 5 Kuey Teow
Service: 2 outta 5 Kuey Teow
Ambience: 1.5 outta 5 Kuey Teow

Opening Hours
Tue - Sun: 11am - 3pm; 5pm - 9pm
Closed on Monday

Tak Chee House
Unit 1, 364 William St,
Northbridge
08 9328 9445

Sunday Roast at Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar, Subiaco

2011-01-18T00:00:00.001+08:00

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar, an addition to Retail T6 complex at Subiaco

I was invited to attend my first ever blog related event 2 months ago by Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar marketing team. In conjunction with the opening of their first WA's shop, some of us were invited to attend an exclusive blogger masterclass at the Subiaco store. Joining me to the event was Karen from Karen Cheng's Fashion and life, Conor from Hold the Beef, Lori from Musings of a Wannabe Gourmand and Devan from Bowl of Honey.

Clean and brightly lit pizza shop

I used to work at a local suburban pizza shop as a delivery driver back in my uni days, a place where most client smells of bourbon and the shop was located at one dark corner of a dodgy suburb. However, I personally think their pizza was better than those international chain. Fast forward to 2010/2011, "gourmet" is the cool word to use and modern decor that plays with colours and lightings tends to attract more people, especially the yuppies.

Delivery car looking sharp!

Crust Pizza seems to be heading on a right track. Apparently they are pretty well known over the eastern state for delivering high quality gourmet pizza. They believe that pizza shouldn't leave you feeling greasy, dirty and guilty, they focus on bringing restaurant quality gourmet pizza to your door step at an affordable price.

Fresh and clean ingredients

I have worked in a pizza place before so I know what goes in your regular home delivery pizza! However, I was pretty amazed seeing the variety and quality of ingredients at Crust. It was looking fresh, clean and healthy.

Pizza making demo by international award-winning creative chef - Peter Augoustis

As this was a pizza making master class for blogger, we were settled in with sparkling on one hand and finally to be able to put a face to a name of all these familiar bloggers. We were then being given a pizza making demo by their menu creator who flew all the way from Sydney - chef Peter Augoustis. As much as I like to look at his cute face, I did pay attention to all his little secret to a delicious crusty pizza, because we would have to team up and come up with a most inspiring pizza.

Chicago Deep Dish Vegetarian Antipasto

During his demonstration, he introduced us Crust's latest invention - the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. It looked more like a quiche to me than a pizza, a unique 2.5" deep dish base smeared with olive tapenade as sauce, then layered with grilled eggplant, artichoke, red peppers and Australian feta. He also stressed that each layering of ingredient affect the presentation and most importantly giving you the ultimate CRUSTY pizza experience. I hate doughy and soft pizza base, but Crust didn't disappoint me, they are called Crust for a reason.

Florentine Ricotta on Gluten Free Pizza Base

I've never tried gluten free pizza before, because I am not a coeliac and I thought gluten free product might not be as good. Boy, I was so wrong in this regard. Texturally the gluten free pizza doesn't taste like normal pizza, it was more of a biscuit-y texture but softer. Peter said some customer ordered the gluten free bases just because they enjoy it. At the bottom layer of Florentine Ricotta pizza was spinach blended with ricotta and parmesan, top with Kalamata olives, Spanish onions, cherry tomatoes, feta and served with cracked pepper & sea salt.

Szechuan Chili Prawn

This one is my favourite of the lot, it was packed full of flavour with bursty spicy Szechuan seasoned prawn, fresh capsicum, chili, shallots and Bocconcini, garnished with snow pea sprouts and lemon on sweet chili sauce base.

Vegetarian Supreme on Wholemeal Pizza Base

White Prosciutto (Roasted potatoes, prosciutto, gorgonzola & fresh rosemary on bechamel sauce

After chef Peter's demonstration, we were teamed up with the person sitting next to us to come up with the most inspiring pizza. We were given a long list of ingredient with up to 100 choices but were only given a few minutes to invent the pizza.

Spent 5 minutes amazed at the choices of ingredients they have!

Following with much deliberation and ummhs, I came up with a pizza named Sunday Roast simply because I saw roasted pumpkin and roasted lamb within that last few seconds.

Pizza in the making by nervous blogger

We were then ushered to the pizza making bench, trying to make our new invention and at the same time, their staff were also making pizza for actual paying customer. With much camera flashes flashing towards us, the customer must be wondering who the hell we are! After putting everything on the pizza, it was passed on into the oven for cooking.

While waiting for all the pizza to be cooked, we mingled around with wines and a cheese platter showcasing the cheeses they use at Crust.

Gorgonzola, ricotta, brie and parmesan

And here comes the final product

Karen & Devan's Street of Bangkok

Me & Carrie's Sunday Roast

Conor & Lori's Paella Pizza

At last, the Paella Pizza got the most vote and I gotta admit it was quite good both taste and visual, with saffron aioli drizzled on top, it left yellow tinge on my fingertips.

What I like about Crust is their crusty pizza base and the variety in good quality ingredients. If you think eating pizza will make you fat and feeling guilty, I am sure at Crust you will be able to find one pizza that is suitable to your diet needs, they even have a selection of healthier option pizza that was awarded by the Heart Foundation Tick.

They also do delivery to Floreat, Wembley, Glendalough, West Perth, Kings Park, Daglish, Shenton Park, Jolimont and West Leederville. Do check out their website for more information.

The bloggers

Once again thank you Crust's marketing for giving me this opportunity, it was a fun night and it was great to finally meet some of the bloggers that I've been following.

Opening Hours:
Monday - Thursday 12pm to 2:30pm 5pm to 10pm
Friday 12pm to 2:30pm 5pm to 11pm
Saturday & Sunday 5pm to 10pm

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar
Retail T6, 502 Hay St
Subiaco, WA 6008
08 6363 0420

Just Bar, Como

2010-12-18T02:11:00.000+08:00

Just Bar, Como

Tapas in Australia or Perth, often gave off the impression of being expensive, overpriced and tiny serving portion. Having said that, there are a few outstanding Spanish Tapas places in Perth that are leading the current dining trend - Pata Negra and Andaluz.

Just Tapas was once known as Just Espresso

Forget lawyers in suits or diner driving a Maserati, here in Just has a more laid back atmosphere nestled along an IGA and a local theatre. The prices here wouldn't hurt your wallet that much, their tapas degustation menu starting from $39 per head for 8 tapas to 18 tapas for only $75. If you think that's too much, you can go for the A la carte tapas menu, which was what we did.

A la Carte menu

Me and my other friends decided to catch up with each other over light lunch on a quiet weekday. We were greeted shortly after walking into the empty restaurant, and were given menu promptly after being seated. Coincidentally, there was an electrician trying to fix their heater and the waitstaff sort of got distracted. I believe we would get better service from him if there wasn't any other distraction as he was trying his best to juggle between providing service and attending to the electrician (There was only one waitstaff on that day).

interior of restaurant

Menu was simple and straightforward, without many choices, we ordered a couple of dishes to try on. But
first, we got to quench our thirst with a glass of wino.

Rose Charles Melton 10 "Rose of Virginia" Barossa, South Australia
Cider NV Bress Brut Harcourt Valley, Victoria

For a restaurant size like this, they have a pretty good looking wine list sourcing mainly from Australia and some other European country too.

Duck liver and brandy pate with port & cranberry jelly and baguette - $9

For starters, we indulge in duck liver pate. I love pate or liver parfait, I would order it if it's on any of the menu. Friend of mine - IA have never tried pate or anything to do with liver, but she was game enough to give it a try that day and fallen in love with Just's pate. We had to ask for more baguette to mop up the rest of it.

Arancini with Aioli - $9

Everyone loves a good arancini ball, but Just's Arancini balls were JUST ok. If I'm not mistaken, it was pumpkin with sage Arancini, but the flavour was on the bland side and the aioli was too runny to my liking. On the upside, it was fried to perfection.

Pan seared quail, cauliflower puree, caramelised garlic & mushroom jus - $12

This was the dish that we all wished it can be our mains. Quail was cooked to perfection and we were all fighting to lick the last bit of cauliflower puree.

Ras el hanout spiced lamb rump, with housemade black bean mole - $13

I was actually looking forward to this dish as it sounded really good. However, it came out looking unattractive at all. The lamb rump was way too rare and the black bean mole resembling of an unforgettable weekend.

Confit duck and pea risotto, rocket and Grana padana - $18

While tasting all those little morsels, we thought it might not fill us up, so we ordered the lunch special - confit duck and pea risotto. Serving size was quite alright considering we were paying $18 for it. The texture of the risotto was perfect but my only gripe was the chef being too heavy handed on salt. Alas, the peppery rocket did help us go through it.

There were some great dishes at Just, but some needed finesses and seasoning to make it JUST right. I don't mind coming back to try their degustation menu because there were some other dishes sounded really good to me. Unfortunately, we were there with a Muslim friend, and not to offend her, we didn't order the spiced confit pork rillettes, maybe next time.

We didn't stay for dessert though as there weren't many interesting choices on offer and we ended up went to JACS Cafe for dessert.

The total bill came up to approximately $20 each without the wine. With the price we had to pay and the environment we were in, I am not complaining. It was indeed a pretty relaxing place to have some drinks and tapas food.

Food Quality: 3 outta 5 Just
Service: 3.5 outta 5 Just
Ambience: 4 outta 5 Just

Just Bar
20, Preston Street,
Como
(08) 9474 1977

Tropical Siu Mai

2010-10-22T02:20:00.001+08:00

Pineapple Box courtesy of King of Fruit, Queensland

A while ago I received a box of pineapple goodies in my mailbox all the way from Queensland! Gosh, they got hold up in WA quarantine detention centre but they were ready-to-eat pineapple by the time it got to my hands. Before I finally got to open up the box, the whole house was perfumed by those sweet pineapple fragrance, loved it! Unfortunately, I received the box just a day before my overseas holiday, hence I gave most of them to friends and made myself a last dinner before boarding the flight!

Just a simple pasta tossed with pineapple, tofu and spicy nap sauce

Fresh, juicy pineapple from Queensland!

Pineapple is an essential fruit in my home country - Malaysia. It is used in curry, stew, desserts, festive cookies and as prayers' offering. As a kid growing up in Malaysia, I never liked fresh pineapples because they were always as sour and left an unbearable aftertaste (like thousands of needles poking through my tongue!). Bad! I then discovered that they were only a type of pineapple out of many other types. Some are meant to be sour and some are sweet and juicy. After coming to Australia, that was when I started to really LOVE pineapples. What an irony, I prefer pineapples from a non-tropical country!

And of course, the best of its kind is produced in the tropical state of the country - Queensland! The beautiful weather, the fertilized soil and great cultivation techniques are just some significant factors contributing to growing these seriously sweet and juicy pineapples.

Since travelling back to Perth, I had been wanting to experiment some dishes with this lovely fruit. I was glad that the King of Fruit's pineapple can be easily obtained from our local supermarket. And for my love for Dim Sum, I've decided to incorporate these two of my loves into a dish (who doesn't like dim sum eh?!)

Tropical Siu Mai

Tropical Siu Mai

Ingredients:
250g Pork Mince
150g Prawns flesh, roughly chopped
2 clove Garlic, chopped
6 no. Birds Eye Chili, deseeded and chopped
4 tbsp Coriander, chopped
3 no. Spring Onion, chopped
2 no. Lime Zest
6 tbsp Pineapple, chopped
4 tbsp Fish Sauce
1 no. Egg White
Fried Shallot for garnish
Pinch of White Pepper
Pinch of Salt
Wonton Skin
Corn Flour slurry ( Mix 1 tbsp corn flour with some water to make the slurry)
*optional* 4no. Kaffir Lime Leaves, julienne

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine all chopped ingredients (save 2 tbsp of chopped pineapple for later use) with pork, prawns, seasoning and egg white.
2. Mix well together and let it sit for at least 15 minutes. (If longer, make sure you cover the mixture and store in fridge)
3. When the mix is ready, put 1 tbsp of mixture in the centre of each wonton wrapper. Brush a tad of corn slurry onto edges of wonton wrappers using a brush or fingertips . Gather the wrapper around filling and press it close to give a little money shape, open at the top.
4. Put the rest of chopped pineapple on top of Siu Mai just like caviar as garnish.
5. In a bamboo basket, put a layer of baking paper and then put Siu Mai in it, don't over crowd it.
6. Cover bamboo basket and steam over boiling water for 10 minutes.
7. Serve hot with fried shallot as garnish on top.

If you like what I've made, do give me a vote at www.kingoffruit.com.au by October 31st. I know I might be a little late, but late is better than never right? Let's just hope I'll get vitamin C overdosed soon (with 1 year supply of pineapples for the winner)! :D

Toast, East Perth

2010-10-12T00:28:00.001+08:00

Sunrising

My flight flying into Perth landed early in the morning the other day, because I'm not so much of a morning person, so being able to witness sunrises and to be awake in the morning was one of those "most appreciated moments of my life". That being said, breakfast by the inlet on a beautiful spring morning was even better, double happiness!

A Warm day approaching

Lonely bird staring at sky

We were half an hour early before Toast open its door for some toasting action! That wasn't a big deal at all as it was a pleasure walking along the foreshore of Claisebrooke Cove.

It's open!!

The door were opened at 7am sharp, and it didn't take long for its place to be filled up by business suiters, morning cyclist and morning go-getter.

Herbies everywhere, needs trimming though!

Crested Menu

We got ourselves a table outside because we were the customer to arrive and it was a beautiful day, but the inside looks cosy and full of character too! We were given water once we sat down without us realising, now that was fast service. After spending much time studying the menu, I went in to the counter and placed our order. The staff were friendly and greeted us warmly, it was nice to start the day with cheerful people.

Rubra Coffee - $3.80

Our coffee came out rather quickly, it has a smooth finish but not too strong or bitter and the milk was smooth but was heated a tad too hot to my liking.

Water, sauces and seasoning station

Corn Fritters, avocado, poached egg, hollandaise - $17.50

Both of us felt like having poached egg with hollandaise sauce that morning, luckily for us Toast offers many choices to go with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. My driver that morning - SY, tried their specialty corn fritters with poached egg, avocado and hollandaise sauce. The corn fritters were a nice replacement to your usual sourdough or english muffin. SY prefers her hollandaise sauce to be thicker and richer, Toast's version was lighter though!

Eggs Benedict - $15.90

I went for the usual suspects that morning - Eggs Benedict, it was served with nicely toasted english muffin, ham and 2 lovely poached eggs then drenched with hollandaise sauce.

Runny & goey yolk weaken my knee

My poached eggs were perfectly cooked, as you can see from the picture above, it was creamy, goey and still runny. It went perfectly well with the lighter version of hollandaise sauce from Toast as the yolk makes it richer. I was even tempted to lick the plate clean at the end of my meal. One thing I really love about Toast is their toast, my english muffin were well toasted, by the time it soaks up all the creamy yolk, it was still crunchy!

I would like to go back to Toast to try the other stuff on their menu, especially on a day when I have a bigger appetite. I guess I'd better change my sleeping pattern to become a morning person. One down side though, being greeted by red colour tight fitted lycra bike pants from a huge guy wasn't a pleasant way to start the morning, I can see his "everything"!!

Food Quality: 4 outta 5 poached
Service : 4 outta 5 poached
Ambience: 4.5 outta 5 poached
Will I be back?: Didn't I just said that!

Opening Hour:
Everyday 7am - 7pm (kitchen closes at 5pm)
Public Holiday: 8am - 6pm

Toast
Shop 21, (by the water)
60 Royal Street,
East Perth
08 9221 0771

Kai Japanese, Bull Creek

2010-10-04T20:31:00.000+08:00

Finally I'm back in Perth just in time for the warmer weather, flowers blooming, music festival and events. Glad to be back, but was shocked to find out there were a few new restaurant sprung up during my 3 weeks holiday. And I'm in no delay in trying them out, also I will need to get groceries after flying-in if I were to cook for myself, a perfect excuse for dining out.

Kai, just beneath Bull Creek's Curry House.

Kai Japanese was recommended by one of my foodie friend, but was being advised that there might be a queue. Situated beneath Bull Creek's Curry House, it's located at Parry Avenue's shopping square, next to The Cheesecake Shop.

There wasn't a queue when we got there, but we waited 10mins outside for a table. The shop were tiny, only 6 tables fitted tightly in a space smaller than a normal size bedroom. If you are uncomfortable dining at such a confine space, I recommend that you get takeaway from them, though menu choices for takeaway are limited.

Wide menu choice

Recently, I'm on Ramen Hunt and I couldn't help myself for ordering Ramen especially after I found out they have Tonkotsu Ramen. They also have sushi, the usual rice dishes and bento boxes. However, majority of the people here were slurping Ramen away with a contented smile on their face.

Chicken Karaage Tonkotsu Ramen - $9.80

My bowl of Ramen were huge for the price I was paying! 3 pieces of Karaage chicken were swimming in the glistering pool of pork broth together with half a stock boiled egg, red jelly chinese mushroom and lots of scallions. The broth wasn't as salty as Arigataya and it wasn't as oily as Dosukoi, it has a natural sweet flavour from the pork bone marrow, and because it wasn't that salty, the broth was easier to drink til the very last bit of it.

pickled ginger were in the Ramen too!

I wasn't sure if they make their own Ramen, but this one here is not bad either, my only gripe was that it went a bit soft because it was slightly overcooked. The stock boiled egg was cooked to perfection, with yolk til runny at the centre. However, my Karaage chicken were not crispy anymore after soaking in the broth for quite some time.

Chicken Karaage set with rice, miso soup and salad - $13

Chicken Karaage set came out with a bang, bang for the buck it is! The plate was filled up with marinated crispy chicken and tons of salad. I don't think you'll be able get such a big portion for only $13 elsewhere. Although the portion was huge, but we felt that the chicken can be crispier and the marinate needs more too, I guess dipping into the provided spicy mayo makes up for it! Oh, and did I mention the rice (good quality Japanese rice) were cooked to perfection.

Seafood Gyoza - $6.50

We ordered a serve of gyoza because we saw the gyoza at the table next to us were looking pretty, unfortunately ours came out looking horrible so was the taste and texture! It was burnt like charcoal and oily, it wasn't looking the same as the table next to us, what a disappointment. Perhaps, we should just stick to pork gyoza next time, or avoid gyoza from them.

I like to try their sushi next time and perhaps some other dishes too, I hope they will keep up with the huge portion they are serving right now and let's not increase the price hey. A pot of green tea was charged at $3 though!

The Good: Ramen and low price
The Bad: Gyoza
Service: Authentic Japanese friendly service

P/s: We took a peek at their kitchen, and the size of the kitchen is 2-3 times bigger than their dining area. The people working in the kitchen are Japanese too, that's always a good sign! :)

Opening Hours:
Tues - Fri: 11am - 2:30pm; 5pm - 9pm
Sat & Sun: 5pm - 9pm only
Closed on Monday & Public Holiday

Kai Japanese
Shop 4/110 Parry Ave,
Bull Creek.
(08) 9332 0388

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

2010-09-23T00:41:00.004+08:00

It was Mid Autumn Festival/ Mooncake Festival/ Lantern Festival for every Chinese out there. It is also a day to reunite with your family; to chat, eat, drink tea and play lantern under the perfectly round moon.

I have lost count on how many Mid Autumn Festival I've missed celebrating with my family. This year was one exception, I got to eat mooncake, drink tea, play lanterns and candles with my family. You'll never feel too old playing lanterns.

When we were a lot younger back then, we used to play with candles, making it into a fire stove and started cooking with dried leaves where we picked up at the garden. Well, now that we have all grown up, we don't play with fire anymore, but focus more on decorating the garden with colourful paper lanterns.

Mooncake - Pandan with double egg yolk

Eating mooncake is a must-do in this festival, you wouldn't feel completed if you didn't have one. We used to fight with each other for the biggest portion with biggest salted egg yolk, nowadays we don't fight anymore, because there are double egg yolk or quadruple egg yolk in a mooncake.

Mooncake Festival must-eat

Apart from mooncake, it's a tradition to eat yam and "Ling Kok" (The black thingy that looks like cow's head).

"Ling Kok" in cantonese

I have no idea what's call in English, any takers?

I am glad I was back home to celebrate this year's Mid Autumn Festival, hope my brother who are currently in Melbourne will be thinking of home when he looks up at the moon.

End of Truffle

2010-09-23T00:17:00.002+08:00

It's way out of the truffle season now, but I managed to freeze it, flew it out of the country, infused it, then only cooked every last bit of it the other day. Not one single bit wasted eh!

Dish no.1

Omelette with brown beech mushroom, creme fraiche, rocket and truffle

This was done 2 days after infusing the eggs with my little piece of black gold/shit. I shaved a tiny amount of truffle on the omelette, because we wanted to try if we could taste the truffle from the infused egg. The aroma and flavour was quite light, extra shaving of truffle didn't really help neither do the rocket leafs. Once again, my parents can't really engage into the whole truffle frenzy. In order to taste the subtle truffle flavour, one need a squeaky clean palate.

Dish no. 2

Risotto in the making

It was such a great effort to look for Arborio Rice in Kuala Lumpur, I went to a few "supposedly" gourmet supermarket and traveled to numerous suburbs to look for arborio rice, but all I could see were risotto pre-mixes of all kind. After much scouting within the time frame of a week, I found an old packet of Arborio rice which were selling at a ridiculous price (imported from Italy though!), I have no choice but to succumb to this old packet of rice, just hope that our stomach will be strong enough.

Wild Mushroom Risotto with Truffle

Rather not to be disappointed with the stock in Malaysia, I've made my own mushroom stock to cook this dish. Portobello and white beech mushroom were added into risotto, was later enhanced with Simon Johnson's truffle oil. The generous shavings of truffle on risotto, finally got the nods from my parents. Dad asked for an extra serving and mom admired the flavour that stayed on her palate whole night. Succeeded.

Dish no. 3

Blanched asparagus with "poached" egg

And to go with our main that night, I've also made some vege as a side dish. I've infused 5 eggs in total and have only used 2 for the omelette. So, the remaining 3 eggs gonna be poached and served with blanched asparagus. Unfortunately, I over poached the egg (yea, how could I?), if not it would be a better side dish for our dinner that night. (I'd blame it on the old stove and the lack of kitchen flow at my KL home)

Dish no. 4

Arancini Balls and mustard

What is the best way to used up leftovers risotto other than making them into balls? The day after our truffle extravaganza dinner, I've made arancini balls using the leftovers risotto, added with more cheese and coated with almond and oatmeal crumb. Can you believe we don't have any fresh/old bread in our house? Hence, I can't coat it with breadcrumbs, but coating it with my spontaneous almond and oatmeal crumb did come to us as a surprise. Mom and dad have never had arancini in their life, and they fell for it immediately after popping the first ball into their mouth, they even brought to their office and share it with colleagues.

A 15g of black truffle can be used in so many ways, not bad for a $30 piece of black gold/shit! But, I've got to be proud to say, I have successfully let my parents experience the fragrance of truffle.

Porky 21st

2010-09-19T00:22:00.000+08:00

Piggy's tail with red ornament for good luck

It was my cousin's 21st on the second day I got home back in Malaysia, and all I could think of was the whole roasted pig at the party!

hmmm...roast pork...

Uncle T ordered a whole roasted pork for his son's birthday, I didn't ask how much it weigh but judging from its size, it could be a young pig, just nice for roasting; not too lean nor too fat. Celebrating 21st in our family is slightly different from the usual Aussie kid's, not so much on music blasting, neither could you see costume party. We call it a party, but more like a family & friends gathering with lots of food of course and booze.

Grandpa doing the honour

Our honourable guest aka grandpa gotta do the deed by chopping and portioning the pork, I must say he did a great job and he does love his meat. I was snapping picture as quick as a ninja to keep up with him, but I whole intention was to get the first bite once it's been cut into delicate size. :) And once I started doing that, other people followed the suit, then onwards all you could hear was oohs and aahhs.

Crispy roast pork, stuffed vege (yong tau foo) and steamed vege dumplings

Apart from the salivating roast pork, there were tons of other great food cooked by my Aunties and some were bought to save time. We bought this famous Teochew steamed vege dumplings and it's a dish that appear on every occasion.

Buffet spread

Picture above was Belachan rice dumpling and Tumeric rice cooked by Aunt Lynn, she loves cooking and often come up with new dishes for us to try. She is also making mooncake at the moment for the coming Mooncake Festival. When it comes to party in Malaysia, the variety of food in the party can be as good as the choices you get from a hotel buffet in Perth. Curry is also one of the dishes can never be missed.

Aunt Lynn's Belachan rice dumpling

Rice dumpling was originally from China, it was stuffed with fatty pork and mushroom. But our ancestor who came into Malaysia from China improvised this dish with local flavour. Hence, belachan, chili and dried shrimp were added into this rice dumpling.

Too much for me? Not!

That was my portion for that night, and yes I was aware that it was a huge portion, but I couldn't resist the temptation and hey I just flew in from Perth! Don't worry, salad and vege were hidden underneath just to make me feel I had a balance diet. (Please ignore my feet on the picture, I was sitting on the floor for my dinner and my lap was the table.)

After a few G&T, V.S.O.P and what not, it felt like a "real" party, we were making so much noise, I just hope we didn't pissed off the neighbour. It was great to be home to be there for someone's 21st as I have missed so many others 21st while I was overseas all these years.

Were you wondering if we managed to finish the entire pork? We didn't, but they were made into soup, stir fry and more stir fry. Gawd, they were good!

KL - Ramadan Bazaar

2010-09-15T00:43:00.003+08:00

Last Friday, marked the end of Ramadan (the Islamic holy end of fasting month), to the whole nation of Malaysia, that means yet another festive holiday - Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Celebration Day). Although I'm not a Muslim, but we do join in the fun of celebration, and food is the best way to learn and celebrate about the other culture.

However, before celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Muslims have to fast for a month from dawn til sunset(that included refrain from eating, drinking and having any form of intercourse. So, if you happen to travel to Malaysia during fasting month, the chances of dining at a Malays' restaurant/shop/stall/kiosk during daytime are quite slim. However, Ramadan Bazaar is one of the most anticipated place to go every evening. What's there? One might ask. FOOD, STREET FOOD!

As a Malaysian myself, I've never been to a Ramadan Bazaar in my entire life, heck I've never even heard of it! Only until recently that I discovered about its existence when I was browsing other Malaysian food blogger. After much research done, we've decided to go the one at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail on the last Sunday of fasting month.

I may be ignorant towards Malay food culture as I was brought up eating mainly Chinese food, but going to a Ramadan Bazaar was one of the most bizarre experience I've had in my own country (in a good way, of course).

We were there slightly early about 4:15pm, on both side of the street were food vendors, yes only FOOD! The variety of food were astounding, some were the normal Malay food like Nasi Lemak, BBQ Chicken and Malay kuih-muih, some other choices were an eye opener for me!

Aromatic Nasi Lemak with crisy yet tender marinated fried chicken

This fried chicken is so good, it put KFC to shame! It was marinated with tumeric and other spices, fried to perfection, the meat was tender inside and the skin was aromatic and crispy. It was finger lickin' good!

Murtabak in the making from different vendors

I love Murtabak myself and I haven't had them in ages, when I saw stalls of Murtabak at the Bazaar, my eyes were popping, I just wanted to try them all and see which stall make the best of the lot. Too bad, we only have few stomach and we did bought Murtabak from 2 different vendor. Murtabak of Malaysia version is similar to Roti Canai/Roti Pratha, but this is stuffed with minced chicken or beef cooked with onion, garlic, egg and spices. It is usually go with curry sauce and a pickled red onion sauce.

Batang Buruk, anyone heard of it?

Happy vendors; Sizzling grilled fish

Huge wok of variety of rice; Grilled chicken butt anyone?

We spotted this vendor selling variety of fried rice and fried noodles, but one particular wok caught our eyes. The huge wok were as big as a paella pan that are enough for the entire village, just like a paella the ingredients were nicely presented on top of the rice. This particular fried rice that caught our eyes have pan fried salted fish, kang kung vege, onions, garlic and other spices. It is more like a rice pilaf than fried rice and god was it good! It was absolutely nothing that I've tasted before.

Wajik Durian

Wajik Durian is something foreign to me, according to my mom, it is made from glutinous rice cooked with durian's meat, coconut milk, palm sugar and pandan leaves. Unfortunately we didn't try it, but I would love to try it next time.

Pick your own fish and they will grill it for you with added spices and chilli, yum~

Steamed kuih with fresh coconut and palm sugar

This kind of steaming kuih is a rare find these days, that was why this stall have people queuing up for their delicacies.

Freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, an ultimate thirst quencher on a hot day like this


Made in Malaysia's Orange Crush, Sarsi and American Ice Cream Soda

I've never seen one of these or tried! But the label looks kinda retro. It was produced in Kelantan (Northern state), hence people who live in Kuala Lumpur (The capital city) don't get a chance to try it.


Otak-otak from Gelang Patah, the flesh is red in colour instead

Nasi Dagang & Nasi Kerabu from the Northern state

That was lemang, glutinous rice with coconut milk cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaf, it is cooked directly on the flame, hence getting that fragrant bamboo flavour infused into the rice. Lemang is usually eat with either beef or chicken rendang (dried curry).

Cars just cruise through the busy food street

Ikan Pekasam - a northern state delicacy

We haven't seen Ikan Pekasam before, not even my mom. According to mom's Malay friend, this is a dish originally from Kedah (a rice harvest state), they uses fish from the padi field then cured with salt for at least 2 days, crumbed with rice then deep fried. Served with sauteed pickling onion, chilli, shallots and kaffir lime. It was indeed an exciting dish to start your meal.

long queues for good food

Dad queued up for this pohpiah stall for about 40 minutes, too bad it wasn't worth the wait! As for this roast lamb, we were drooling over it, hoping we could get a piece of it, but it wasn't ready by the time we were ready to leave the place and some people started queuing for the roast lamb even when the leg was still red! Talk about being patient for good food, I hope it's worth it!

Assorted Kuih-muih - Seri Muka, Kuih Koci...


Assorted Agar-agar; Colourful fruits custard

Apart from deep fried, grilled, steamed and roasted savoury food, there were also array of sweets to end your meal with. However, Malaysia's desserts are made using lots of coconut milk and pandan as flavouring.

Table full of street food to feed 5

That was what we've bought, it can probably feed a nation of Pitcairns Island! jk! Our whole table worth of food costs us RM96.50 (AUD$23), that was considered pretty expensive for Malaysia's street food standard. But, believe of not, we did managed to gobble down everything!

I had fun strolling, smelling, seeing and eating at Ramadan Bazaar. If you're like me have never been to one, maybe you should too!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

2010-09-13T00:54:00.000+08:00

Beautifully Risen Pandan Chiffon Cake

On 31st of August, it was Malaysia's 53th Birthday. As a Malaysian myself, I tried making Pandan Chiffon Cake first time ever on our Independence Day to bring out the patriotism in me. Also after receiving a few demands from friends who crave for Pandan Chiffon Cake badly but didn't have the magic hands to make it perfect.

Unfortunately for me, I didn't inherit any family recipe from my mom nor my grands, but thank heaven for internet, I could easily find a good recipe online. I used this recipe from Nyonya Food (My recent discover for Nyonya recipes) of which received lotsa great comment.

Extracting Pandan Juice

Ingredient A:
8no Medium Egg Yolk
2oz or 56.7grm Sugar
2oz or 1/4cup Pandan Juice(Made from blending 6 Pandan Leaves with 1/4 -1/3 of water)
3oz or 1/3cup Olive oil/Corn oil (I used olive oil in this case)
5 oz or 142grm Self Raising Flour

Ingredient B:
8no. Medium Egg White
15oz or 42grm Caster Sugar
Pinch of salt

*I've converted the unit from Oz to Grams or Cup as we're more likely to be using these units.

Step 1 & 2

Method:
1. Beat yolks and sugar lightly using a whisk til sugar dissolve.
2. Stir in Pandan Juice and Oil into mixture.
3. Fold self raising flour into egg mixture (like a slightly thick batter consistency).
4. Set aside.
5. On another big bowl, beat egg whites til light & frothy (make sure bowl is clean and not oily).
6. Slowly add in sugar and pinch of salt while beating at high speed.

Step 7, 9 & 10

7. Beat until the egg white is stiff and shiny (you can try putting the bowl upside down on your head, if it doesn't fall on ya, that's a great meringue).
8. Preheat oven at 175 degrees.
9. Using a spatula gently fold in egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture (meringue).
10. Once that's done, pour mixture into an ungreased 26cm tube pan (*try lining baking paper at the bottom of pan and side of pan).
11. Bake in the oven for 40 - 45mins.
12. Once cake is cooked, remove cake from oven immediately and invert pan onto wire rack to cool before removing cake from pan.

* I didn't line any baking paper while making them, hence wrinkly & ugly appearance.

Old people's hands

I was quite impressed with the height but not very happy with how it looked, as I was planning on giving it out as a birthday present to a friend of mine. Having said that, the flavour was incredible so as the cottony light texture. It is one of those after meal desserts that wouldn't make you feel guilty and bloated, because it is so light, one can easily finish it off.

Souffle like texture

It wasn't as green as those you get from Asian groceries, I suspect they put Pandan essence instead of extracting Pandan juice from its leaf. Pandan is a national flavour that are well-liked by everyone in Malaysia despite their difference in culture and social status. It is easily grown just as rosemary, you can find it in almost every household in Malaysia, and there's a big big bunch at my grandparents' place. We adore the aroma very much that we use it on almost everything, we even put it into the car to replace a car perfume. Well, back to Pandan Chiffon Cake, if you've never tried making it, you probably should because it wasn't as hard as I imagined.

Happy baking XD!

Truffle-W.I.P (Work in Progress)

2010-09-11T01:03:00.000+08:00

The unassuming black fungus

It's been two months when Perth Foodie had fun drinking and eating at Perth Good Food & Wine Show, and of course some of us bought ourselves a piece of truffle, trying to experiment with this aromatic fungus at home. Most of them cooked with it straight away once they got it, but for me I tried to freeze it and bring it back to Malaysia, where my family members could try it.

This piece of truffle that I bought weigh 15grms and it cost me $30, it's so tiny that you don't really want to use it. Anyway, I tried freezing it in hope that it will taste the same after 2 months of harvesting. After 5.5hours of flying plus a few hours extra for airport check-in and check-out, the first thing I did when I got home was to check it out. To my horror, it was completely thawed, wet and soft, I wasn't sure if it's ok but let's just hope. (Notice the white line through the truffle are not there anymore, now it looks like a piece of black shit!)

Infuse with some local eggs

I tried to infuse this little piece of gold 2 days ago in a container together with 5 local eggs, due to local hot and humid weather, I had to put it into the fridge. I'm planning to make some scrambled eggs and truffle & mushroom risotto when I have a chance.

Hair-boiled egg with truffle

However, before jumping into cooking up a storm, I tried shaving tiny bits onto my hard-boiled egg for the moment and let my parents to try. Their expression was funny though, because they can't seems to taste the exquisite flavour!

Glorious Food Back Home, Always!

2010-09-07T01:21:00.001+08:00

Traveled back home to Malaysia over the weekend, it had been great so far celebrating cousin's 21st (tons of food at the party), stuffing my face with Durian, going to Ramadan Bazaar first time ever in my life for traditional Malay food. In the past 2 days I was pretty much feast upon variety of food non stop to the brim, it was good for the palate but not that good for my waist line!

Ramadan Bazaar

However, in the last 6 hours I had the Fright of My Life - realising that I couldn't find my passport, I might have drop it, lost it or was being stolen. The idea of not being able to travel out of the country in the next 5 -10 yrs was frightening, it is as bad as imprisonment. After searching my room for a good few hours, shedding bucket tons of tears, scalp scratching and what not, my passport appeared somewhere hidden by me, of which I can't seems to recall. I couldn't believe my eye, holding my passport close to my heart as though it is my baby, I had to scream to release the anxiety and stress in me. It was such an emotional ride while unfolding every single piece of clothing in the luggage and cupboard, thank god it wasn't lost, but now I've got a puffy eye to cure after crying vigorously.

Other than being devastated when I couldn't find my passport, my trip back home was quite good. With all the festival coming up and wedding to attend, means I've got more glorious food to eat. Such is MalaysianLife! :D

Malay Style Grilled Chicken

Assam Prawn

2010-08-30T23:47:00.001+08:00

Marinating in progress

I came across this recipe while reading other food blog, a dish that I've forgotten and enjoy eating it a lot - Assam Prawn(Assam Heh)/ Tamarind Fried Prawn. Somewhat, a very comforting childhood dish to me and I can't believe I've forgotten about it all these years. After glancing through the recipe, I realised how easy it is to make this dish and it tasted fantabulous.

Ingredient
16no. Large Banana Prawn
4 tbsp Tamarind Pulp
8 tbsp Water
3 tsp Sugar
3/4 tsp Salt
5 tbsp Cooking Oil

Method
1. Extract tamarind juice by adding water to tamarind pulp and start pressing or squeezing with hand.
2. Trim off pointy bit on prawn head with a scissor (you may choose to remove the heads if you prefer) then devein prawn by slitting the back and slowly pull out the urinal track. Rinse prawn then dry with paper towel.
3. Mix salt and sugar into tamarind juice. Then pour juice onto prawns and mix it with hand. Marinate for 20 minutes. (You may remove the pulp before cooking)
4. Heat up wok then add cooking oil. When the wok is ready, put the prawns into the wok and sautee til prawn turn pink and slightly caramelised.
5. Serve immediately with sprigs of coriander as garnish.

Assam Prawn

I personally prefer to serve prawn with its head just because I love sucking the juice from prawn head, is that weird? Some may find it gross, but the flavour of gooey prawn head juice is mind blowing. On this occasion, I left the pulp in for cooking, because eating the caramelised tamarind with steamed rice tasted fantastic.

Chive, Spring Onion & Carrot Omelette

To go with tonight's dinner, I also cooked up chive, spring onion & carrot omelette and stir fried bak choy with garlic & fish cake. Got a bunch of chive from Subiaco weekend market, I was quite happy when I saw chive was available at the market, haven't seen them a lot during the colder months or maybe I didn't go to the right market. I used to hate chive, spring onion, coriander and leek when I'm younger, but I adore them ever since becoming an adult and started to appreciate them even more.

Have I said it yet? I absolutely love herbs! What about you?

Yummy House Chinese Restaurant - Dim Sum

2010-08-28T21:41:00.000+08:00

Recently discovered a new Dim Sum place on Albany Hwy, Vic Park. They open everyday for Dim Sum from 10:30am - 5:30pm, that make them slightly different from anyone else.

They have Bubble Tea too!

Apart from serving Dim Sum, they also have a range of lunch dishes, noodles and rice. By adding more stuff on their menu, they also serve bubble tea.

Interior

Yummy House Chinese Restaurant did put some effort in renovation and decoration. Warm light tone and dark brown colour tables + chairs, but nothing too fancy or plain. Although they said they are open for Dim Sum til 5:30pm, but when we were there, the restaurant have no sight of patrons and staff. However, staff appeared from no where to attend to us immediately. It was a sheer awkward moment as we are not used to staff providing butler service, especially in a Chinese restaurant.

Straight from the steamed trolley, except for egg tart.

Once we sat down, one of the staff served us hot tea and chilli oil, another staff brought out a tray of unappealing left-over fried dishes, as they have been sitting in the heat box for quite some time waiting for customer to arrive. On the steaming trolley, the food looked like they have been kept warm for the entire day.

Battered salt + pepper squid tentacles

Our Dim Sum experience here in Yummy House Chinese Restaurant wasn't as good as I like to be. Dim Sum should always be served fresh, and Yummy House failed to deliver that. Eating soggy thick battered fried squid at a restaurant should be illegal, however the chilli garlic flavour was quite nice.

The array of steamed Dim Sum that we had were passable, chicken feet was exceptional though as it was cooked to the right texture. We normally order quite a fair few dishes, but we planned to go easy that day just because the food wasn't as fresh as it should be and some other dishes on the menu were unavailable too!

Steamed Custard Bun

The one thing fresh that we had was steamed custard bun, however we waited close to 25 mins for it. As you can see from the picture above, it was overcooked and the custard beneath the bun was on the verge to be drying out.

Where is the caviar on my Siu Mai

Despite being let down by the food quality, we felt that we were slightly cheated by the menu as well. On the menu, it stated that steamed pork dumpling comes with caviar/fish roe. On our Siu Mai, the caviar was replaced with goji berry! If it wasn't for this error, the Siu Mai tasted quite alright.

Where is my flaky pastry??

Another similar incident happened while we were there, the egg tart that we had wasn't the same as it was shown on the menu. Although it stated "Baked Egg Tarts" in English, but it meant "Flaky Egg Tarts" in Chinese, and the picture on the side showed flaky tart base too. I might sound a bit nit picking here, but I do prefer flaky egg tart base than a sweet pastry alike base for egg tart.

The main issue that we encountered here was the freshness of the food, if the restaurant is going to be empty after the lunch hour, it would be better if they cook their dishes on order instead of keeping them warm in a heat box or the steaming trolley.

Food Quality: 2 outta 5
Ambience: 2.5 outta 5
Service: 3 outta 5
Will I be back?: I'll just go back to my usual Dim Sum place

Opening Hours:
Open everyday 10:30am -5:30pm (Yum Cha)

Yummy House Chinese Restaurant
405, Albany Highway,
Victoria Park
(08) 9470 2511

Nekisse at Spring Espresso

2010-08-25T00:23:00.001+08:00

Spring Espresso

Been hearing a lot about Nekisse coffee from twitter. It is a reserve micro selection Ethiopian coffee, and it is part of Five Senses reserve range of the year. Many have said "if you love coffee, you should really try Nekisse." Now a normal 250g of coffee bean would only cost you around $10, not for Nekisse though, a bag of it could cost you $28.

That being said, on a fine Wednesday night, Spring Espresso twitted "Tomorrow filter coffees: Tanzanian Blackburn Estate, Ethiopian Nekisse, and Brazil Monte Verde CoE Lot 21. Come get some!" and there I was sipping on Nekisse on Thursday.

Spring Espresso is located at the Crossway Shopping Centre, Subiaco, just off Bagot Rd. With only a few comfy coach seating available in the cafe, Spring Espresso has a stream of local and regulars went in for coffee.

Nekisse Micro Selection 2010

Upon entering, there were a standing blackboard written with 'todays single origin'. If you like specialty coffee, Spring Espresso is the place to be, with a few single origin coffee bean on offer, there were also various brewing method for you to choose. As suggested by the staff, I went with a Clever Coffee Dripper to brew the most anticipated Nekisse.

Good things doesn't come to you easily or in this case I waited maybe about 10 mins for my cup of coffee, the long wait make me felt more excited. I normally prefer drinking coffee with milk, however due to Nekisse's unique character, drinking it black at its best. It was a special brew, with a very floral acidity that brings a berry and citrus note to it. The after taste was clean and fragrant, just like that kind of after taste you would get for drinking tea. In this case, I felt like I was drinking coffee in a citrus & berry farm.

Cappuccino

My friend had a cup of cappuccino because we wanted to try their ordinary milk-based coffee blend. They were using their special house blend and the coffee was quite different from what you can usually get in Perth. It wasn't your usual strong coffee taste with a kick of bitterness, the coffee flavour was smooth, floral, sweet and kind of full bodied. The milk was heated to the right temperature, it was velvety and sweet. One thing I should mention, the latte art that we got looks kinda 3-D too (can't really see it from the picture above).

Spring Espresso is operate by happy and passionate staff. If you're a coffee buff, you should really get on to Spring Espresso and experience something new every now and then.

Spotted a huge-ass dog, not sure what breed is that

Coffee Quality: 4.5 outta 5 (based on milk-base coffee and barista skill)
Service: 4.5 outta 5
Ambience: 4.5 outta 5

Opening Hours
6:30am - 4pm

Spring Espresso
Shop 24, Crossway Shopping Center,
Bagot Rd,
Subiaco.
(08) 6380 2261

Great Mellie

2010-08-22T23:30:00.000+08:00

While restaurant along South Terrace in Fremantle were bustling with diners feast upon pasta and pizza, the rest of Freo is as quiet as if the earth just stop spinning. If not for the great ratings on Urbanspoon, I wouldn't have thought of dining in this hole-in-the-wall French restaurant on High Street.

Hallway leading to the toilet, on the wall were newspaper and magazine clippings.

French born owner and chef Frederic Verschoore spent years training and working in a 3 Michelin-star restaurant in France, then spent more than 10 years abroad in Hong-Kong and Japan. After all these years of training and working in city that never sleeps, he finally settled in our humble port city and opened up his own restaurant.

Dining hall

Great Mellie is a 40 seated small restaurant, comfortable sized clothed table, old-fashioned chairs, paintings from artists and a cave-like 3D structured wall (that reminds me of Djimbaran in Myaree, maybe they were using the same contractor). I'm not too sure if the structure of the wall serves any purpose at all, but I'm damn sure it intimidates me. With chill-out music playing and scented oil burning at the back, I felt more like I was in a massage parlor in Bali.

Putting mixed ambient aside, let's talk more about the food. While Bouchon Bistro delivered some memorable dinner, I was kinda looking forward to savour food created from this highly-rated michelin-stared French trained chef.

Porcini Mushroom Soup

We all received Amuse Bouche to start - a little dish of porcini mushroom soup with balsamic reduction. It was thick, creamy and bursting with earthy mushroom flavour, but me and my friends felt that the chef was a little heavy handed on salt though I have high salt tolerance! That aside, the soup has good consistency and my only gripe was that the serving was too small and we don't get to mop up the soup with bread.

After a reasonable amount of waiting time, entree came out looking fantastic. However, the staff placed a wrong order for my entree despite him repeating and confirming our order when it was taken. I had to wait and looked at the faces of my friends enjoying their well executed entree. A basket of complimentary bread was served along with our entree, but according to their restaurant policy, they don't serve bread with butter. We all thought that French loves their butter!

Poached Duck Foie Gras - $32

Generous piece of Foie Gras sitting on raisins and walnut French toast accompanied by a light sweet and sour frothy sauce. I had a taste of it and it was sublime, the accompanied sauce was well paired with this rich and buttery foie gras. Though it wasn't a goose's foie gras, but this has a distinctive ducky flavour.

Single tier Black Truffle Pumpkin Lasagna - $24

This wasn't your traditional lasagna, albeit looking quite tiny but the flavour was pure gold. Hiding in the middle of 2 thinly rolled lasagna sheet was deliciously pureed butternut pumpkin and 3 big slices of local black truffle. The pasta sheet was silky smooth and was enhance with nut brown butter. This dish alone worth re-visit, but I think this is only available during truffle season.

Tuna Tartare - $24

After gawking and munching on bread while waiting for my forgotten entree, here comes the Picasso looking piece of art. The tuna tartare was presented in a brick form, at the bottom was freshly diced avocado with olive oil and dill, on top of the fresh tartare was a crispy parmesan wafer. However, the tuna tartare was heavily flavoured with lime and sesame oil, sesame oil and more sesame oil (oops!), perhaps a tad too much sesame oil but more lime or more balsamic reduction please!

Duckling Breast in High Spirit - $42

As for mains, out of 6 choices, we all eyed on the same thing, thus 2 choices of mains here. The roasted duck breast was served with foie gras-potato pancake, glazed baby carrots and foie gras jus. The breast was nicely cooked but skin could be crispier, I had a taste of it and it was only alright, nothing to rave about.

Lamb Loin in Shitake Crust - $40

Me and other friend chose this shitake crusted lamb loin served with rose potato, carrot puree and snow peas. At first we thought "rose" potato could be a typo on the menu, but it was actually meant to be a resemblance of rose flower. Shitake crusted lamb loin may sound exotic to me, but taste wise didn't really wow us, though the loin was cooked pink in the middle, just how I like it, but I've certainly have had better quality lamb. Carrot puree was smooth, rose potato was crispy but snow peas was a tad overcooked as I would prefer them to pop in my mouth.

Chocolate Tart - $15

Very often we get amazing entree but was always let down by the mains. Desserts however ended with dignity. We've pre-ordered our desserts while placing order for our entree and mains, simply because we wanted to try their apple tart and that require 25 minutes preparation time. There were only 3 choices of desserts and we had them all. I had the chocolate tart, it was rich, sexy and smooth in texture, the pastry was soft like melt-in-the-mouth. Great accompaniments of vanilla bean ice-cream and strawberry coulis to cut down the richness.

Apple Tart - $17

And this was the apple tart that needed 25mins of love and care from the chef, it was cooked À la Minute. Although it might not looked as colourful as other desserts, but the apples were symmetrically lay on the pastry. It was served with a quenelle of honey-milk ice cream on top of the apples. Because the apples were thinly sliced, so it was lacking a bit of bite here and it needed more sauce to be enjoyed properly. Was it worth 25mins of wait if you were to order after you finish your desserts? I'd say not really!

Lavender Creme Brulee - $14

Well French claimed that they invented creme brulee and the Spanish said that they invented creme catalana, I said they were both great and everyone loves custard base desserts. I make a mean creme brulee too but this lavender creme brulee served at Great Mellie deserve a mention. It was smooth and creamy, best of all when I had a taste of it, the fragrant of lavender brought me to a fully bloom lavender farm. The serving of brulee was quite generous too!

While the chef delivered some quite decent and artsy dish, service sequence however needed to be polished. My order were taken wrongly resulting in long waiting for entree, also our orders being sent to the wrong person, it happened twice and there was an awkward moment when 3 staff surrounding our table figuring out who has got the right set of cutlery and who is having the right dish. It wasn't too major but I thought of mentioning it, hope they will pick up their game. Staff were friendly and chatty but a bit trying too hard.

Was it the best French restaurant in Perth according to Urbanspoon? You be the judge. I personally prefer the French food from Bouchon Bistro and they were cheaper too.

In conclusion, Great Mellie's food was quite expensive with small flavours, I left the place paying $80 for my share and my belly wasn't feeling contented. One point for Great Mellie though, they allow BYO and they only charge $5 per bottle.

Highs: Pumpkin truffle lasagna
Lows: Apple Tart

Food Quality: 3.75 outta 5 lavender
Service: 3 outta 5 lavender
Ambience: 3 outta 5 lavender
Will I be back?: Having tried once, that's enough!

Opening Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday: 12pm - 2:30pm; 6pm - 9:30pm

Great Mellie
37, High Street (Between Henry and Mouat St)
Fremantle
(08) 9433 4616

Pan Mee (Flat Flour Noodle Soup)

2010-08-16T20:30:00.000+08:00

Italians has Spaghetti/Pasta as their staple and for Chinese noodles has become their essential staple. So much so that the Chinese are obsess in making all kinds of noodles, using different type of flour, making it into different shape and cooking it in different broth or serve them dry. In saying so, the dough can be cut into thin strips, hand pulled, hand rolled, extruded, peeled and kneaded. They do have a way to play with it and call it their specialty for that region.

When the Chinese exported their people to South-east Asia and other country, these people (my ancestors and friends) started to come out with a more localised noodle dish, thus in Malaysia we've Pan Mee.

A bowl of freshly made Pan Mee and condiments

While Malaysian food is not hard to find here in Perth and almost every Asian restaurant serves noodle dish, but Pan Mee is one exceptional that I don't seems to find it anywhere in Perth, except Spencer Village Food Court (but that doesn't taste as authentic as it should be). I have since then grew an obsession over Pan Mee, simply because I'm not getting any. Whenever I'm back in Malaysia for holiday, I'll eat as much Pan Mee as possible until my body expand.

Pan Mee is distinctively Malaysian Chinese cuisine, traditionally it's hand-knead and torn into small piece, or you could use a pasta machine to make them into thin strips, something like fettuccine but wider. It can be eaten with soup or toss it with special dark sauce for dry.

When one craves for something that bad, one has to be satisfied. I finally tried to get my hands in making them the other day.

Ingredients:

Dough

250g Plain Flour

1 no. Whole Egg

Approx. 100ml Salted Water

Broth

150g Ikan Bilis (Dried Asian Anchovies)

3lt Water

Condiments

Ikan Bilis (Dried Asian Anchovies)

200g Pork Mince
2 cloves Garlic

4no. Shitake Mushroom (reconstitute in water, then cut them into strips or diced)

3no. Black Wood Ear Fungus (reconstitute in water, then finely shred)

Choy Sum (Traditionally uses tapioca leaves, but couldn't find it in Perth)
Spring Onion as garnish (julienne)

Black Wood Ear Fungus

To make dough:

1. Mix in flour, egg and some water until dough consistency, add more water if you feel it's too hard. (you make use a food processor or a mixer)

2. When dough is form, cover with cling film and let it rest for 30mins or until soft.

3. When dough is ready, portion them into 4.

Ikan Bilis fried til golden and crispy

To make condiments:
Ikan Bilis

1. Wash ikan bilis then dry them with a paper towel.

2. Fry them in hot oil, drain with paper towel.
3. Set aside.

Pork & Mushroom mix in action

Pork & Mushroom mix
1. Marinate pork with oysters sauce, pepper, sugar, salt, some soy sauce, sesame oil and Shaoxing wine.
2. Finely chop 2 cloves of garlic.
3. Marinate mushroom with some soy sauce and sugar.
4. Heat up a pan then heat up some vege oil.
5. Saute pork mince and chopped garlic for 2 mins.
6. Then add in mushroom until ready.
7. Set aside.

To make broth:

1. Soak ikan bilis in cold water for 5 mins, drain and left dry.

2. Heat up a big pot and drizzle some veg oil.

3. Saute ikan bilis in hot oil until aromatic, then put in water and let it boil.

4. when it's boiling, turn heat down to simmer for about 1.5 hrs.

5. Set aside.

To serve:
1. Bring about 500ml of broth to boil in a smaller pot.
2. Drizzle some vege oil on 1 portion of the dough before kneading and stretching.

3. Torn dough into small pieces (abt 2 inches), drop it into the broth.

4. When it's floating on top of broth, use a slotted spoon to take it out, put it into a serving bowl
5. Put in shredded wood ear fungus and 1 tbls of cooked pork & mushroom mix into the soup (I like to infuse the soup with the fragrant of mushroom).
6. When it's almost ready, put in choy sum or vege.
7. Pour soup into noodle, then finish with putting fried ikan bilis, more pork & mushroom mix and spring onion.
8. If possible, serve it with blended chili with kaffir lime juice.

There you go, my favourite noodle dish of all time, it's healthy and heartwarming. I used to think it's very hard to make, but it's actually not. However, prepping the condiments takes up most of my time. Now, I have more respect to those Pan-Mee hawker seller as they do this on a daily basis.

Go try it at home, Pan-Mee is alot like pasta texture, soft, silky with a bite. I love it!

Dinner: Spicy Chorizo, Chickpea & Veg Soup

2010-08-15T23:23:00.000+08:00

Hearty soup to calm ones heart

Hearty, healthy, warm and fuzzy. Was trying this turkey & chicken chorizo from woolworths because it's simply cheaper than a normal chorizo. It wasn't that bad after all and it added great smokey paprika flavour into the soup.

A simple chorizo and vege soup can be made quickly and easily. I chose the trickier way by boiling and simmering my own vege stock then blend it into a thick soup (no any sort of wastage here). As I like to eat soup with more texture, I then put in diced vege and legumes for a more filling dinner. Served with a warm crunchy garlic toast, what a contented dinner, it makes me feel good about myself for eating 10 serves of vegetables in 1 go!

Dosukoi, Fremantle

2010-08-15T01:03:00.000+08:00

oh-hai-yo-go-zai-e-maz-da

No, this wasn't Japan, although it was with full house of black-headed South-East Asian, myself included. As familiar as it looks, this is indeed in the heart of Fremantle Market, hands down one of the best Ramen in Perth, even Kevin Rudd says so!

I've known this place since uni years, been there for takeway takoyaki (occy balls) and bubble tea, but never their ramen. While I'm on a ramen hunt, we've finally decided to try their ramen and went for grocery shopping as well on a fine sunday.

Without knowing the ultra long wait to dine-in, we had to order the ramen in take-away plastic bowl and find ourselves a table at the yard of Fremantle market. It sucks because we don't have 1 hr just to queue for ramen that day, our ramen wasn't served in the infamous ramen's big bowl and we don't get to enjoy the buzz cramming with other ramen slurper.

Char-siu Ramen

Authentic crockery aside, our ramen in a plastic bowl did look as good. I had the Char-siu Ramen as this was recommended by the owner, and god it tasted great! My bowl of ramen was covered with slices of marinated pork (Char-siu), chiffonade of wood-ear fungus, Japanese fish cake, seaweed and spring onion as garnish. The shoyu (soy-sauce) broth was thick in flavour, not as oily or as salty as the one in Arigataya . On the other hand, the curly ramen noodle was springy and with great texture, it was well coated with the flavour of the broth. Char-siu was marinated to perfection with hint of sake and mirin, these tender pieces of pork belly were fatty and juicy, exactly how you would want them to be. I added a few shakes of chili for some heat, I was shedding in tears and sweat while slurping down this wonderful ramen.

Karaage Chicken Ramen

Karaage Chicken Ramen was also another recommended dish out of the 9 choices available. It was a shoyu broth base top up with big pieces of deep fried juicy chicken, seaweed, shredded wood-ear fungus, Japanese fish cake and spring onion. Because our ramen were served in a plastic take-away bowl with the lid on, the crispy chicken turned soggy after soaking in the broth and when all the moisture were trapped in the bowl for a good 5 minutes. If not, it would be a good Karaage, it was quite peppery and flavoursome. In saying that, when 2 well seasoned elements collide with each other, it became over-flavoursome, definitely not for a light palate person. Maybe next time, we'll order Karaage chicken on its own and ramen with some other ingredient, the Gyoza Ramen is definitely on my next-to-try list.

If you're a ramen lover, you gotta try Dosukoi's and remember to be there earlier. Avoid the bubble tea though, as they were lacking of tea flavour and was way too sweet to my liking.

Their opening hours should be in-sync with the opening hours of Fremantle Market. Which is also one of my grievance that I can only get them on limited days. I often wonder what they do on Monday - Thursday. Perhaps boiling and reducing the broth?

Dosukoi Japanese Noodle & Bubble Tea
Stall Number 7, Fremantle Markets,
South Tce,
Fremantle
0412 855 663

Flipside Burger Bar, North Freo

2010-08-14T17:17:00.001+08:00

Flipping it at North Freo

I don't usually head up to the north-side of Freo as there aren't much to do, so much so that I only know Mojo's bar and Harvest Restaurant is around that area. And that day I've finally decided to "Flipside"!

Staff getting slammed

Flipside at North Freo has a team of young and energetic staff pumping out burger after burgers, all I heard was the sizzling from the grill, phone ringing asking for takeway and a constant gentle shout for pick ups. Decor was minimal, simple and effortless, with just a long community table serving dine-in patrons and 2 tables outside who fancy the chill. The rest of the space filled up with chairs/stools reserved for takeaway customers because the wait can be up to 20mins.

Ciabatta roll as burger buns

With not much choices from the menu, I've got ourselves a Chilli-Ander Chicken burger ($12), a BBQ Bacon & Cheese burger ($12) and a serve of Thick Cut Chips ($4.50) to bring home. After about 30 minutes wait and a few awkward stares at other patrons, I was delightfully munching on the HOT chips while driving. I know eating while driving is as dangerous as using the mobile phone while driving, but I couldn't resist the thick crunchy hot chips with powdery yet waxy center, they were one not to be missed.

Chilli-Ander Chicken Burger

Both burger were great, the beef patty and the chicken breast were juicy, tender and with the right amount of char-grilled flavour. Chilli-Ander burger comes with chicken breast, red pepper relish, rocket, mayo and fresh coriander. Kudos for using fresh ingredients, although it's not as spicy as I would like, but the red pepper relish has a good balance of smoky, heat and sweetness. Same as the BBQ Bacon & Cheese burger, it was of using great quality produce and the BBQ onion relish added great flavour to the burger, tasty nonetheless.

Overall, it was a good burger and the chips were great, service was ok and they are happy to take over your burger next door - Mrs Brown, where one could enjoy the burger with better ambient and perhaps over a few glasses of G&T.

With the rise of more local gourmet burger bar, we can only be grateful for it and hopefully one day these gourmet burger bar are able to replace those dodgy burger/fast food joint.

Opening Hours:
Monday & Public Holidays - closed
Tuesday & Wednesday - 5:30pm - 9pm
Thursday & Friday - 12pm - 2:30pm; 5:30pm - 9pm
Saturday & Sunday 12pm - 9pm

Flipside Burger Bar
239 Queen Victoria St,
North Fremantle
(08) 9433 2188
or
294 Cambridge St,
Wembley
(08) 9287 2288

Cioccolato Espresso

2010-08-09T00:42:00.000+08:00

It's always a bliss driving along Ardross Street in Applecross on a sunny day, especially when jacarandas are in their full bloom, those dreamy purple colour flower lining along the road, make up my day every time. After having discovered JACS and The Good Grocer on the strip, I've decided to discover other cafes serving this beautiful community and Cioccolato Espresso looks promising.

We were there for arvo coffee session, although there wasn't many customer in the cafe, but we often see mums with groceries, mums with teenagers, and rich middle-aged with a puppy popping in for coffee to-go. As soon as we sat down, more and more stay-at-home mums came in for a cup of frappe and catch up with their girl friends about the day.

We were greeted warmly at the counter when we were having a look at their cakes slices which were sitting in the display fridge. We got ourselves a cup of flat white, cappuccino and an orange chai slice.

It was a small cafe with small tables and wooden chairs, the decor was warm and contemporary yet was mix with First Emperor of Qin's terracotta army statue. Next to the counter, there were shelves of gourmet produces dedicated to those who like to bring home the amazing products, especially New Norcia's fruit toast.

Service was warm, friendly and prompt, same as the quality of their coffee - top notch. While my cup of flat white was velvety, well textured, and has great depth of flavour, the cup of cappuccino was looking outstandingly remarkable. It was sprinkled with real chocolate shavings instead of chocolate powder, I can't help but starts to wonder how good would a mocha be. Apart from delivering great quality of Bonissimo's coffee, they also have a range of milkshakes, fruit smoothies and frappes. Who says we need Starbucks here in Perth.

We both shared a slice of orange chai slice to go with our coffee and the staff kindly portioned into half at our convenience. I haven't try alot of chai flavoured dessert, but my right eye twitched involuntary due to its great depth of flavour. Despite good combination of flavour, the icing on top was slightly too sweet to my liking. After eating a few mouthful and sipping on my cup of coffee, the strong coffee taste had tremendously weakened.

Other than making consistently good coffee, they have a selection of sandwiches and breakfast too. The staff here worth mentioning too as they carry a big warm smile and treating every customer with respect at all time. Even though the icing on top of our slice was too sweet to my liking, but I don't mind sitting at Cioccolato trying their different kind of coffee and watch the day goes by in tranquility surroundings.

Price of Coffee: $3.90

Coffee Quality: 4 outta 5

Service: 4.5 outta 5

Ambience: 4 outta 5

Opening Hours:

7:30am - 5pm

Cioccolato Espresso

31, Ardross Street,

Applecross

(08) 9364 2284

Little Creatures Brewery

2010-08-06T20:48:00.002+08:00

Little Creatures Brewery have been a favourite of mine ever since my first visit 5 years ago. That was also my first time trying pale ale and I'm hooked ever since. I have been to Little Creatures on several occasions: casual meet-up with friends, birthdays, overseas visitor, or just to chill out, be it summer or winter either day or night. I see them expand and grow within these 5 years, bigger and better just as my maturity.

No doubt, it's one of many's favourite hang out place in Freo everyday of the year. With its expanded size, there are plenty of tables and seats of different sizes, cater to different groups of people in the dining hall and at the back alfresco style.

On a hot summer day

On a cold winter night

And you couldn't get any fresher beer than coming to Little Creatures Brewery, it's literally coming straight out from the tank. Of course the beer list is only limited to their own brand, they also carry few WA wine if you're not a beer drinker.

One thing though, they are always busy especially during the weekend and after 5pm on weekdays. At times it can be difficult to get a table without an hour wait. Despite the crowd, it was never the rowdy bunch, only a group of friends enjoying each other's company with a few pint of fresh beer.

Some may be able to drink without having a single bite, but not for me, I always need something to munch on whenever I'm drinking. And Little Creatures have a wonderful selection of small bite to go with their beers, from woodfired pizza to some amazing beer accompaniments.

Left - Marinated Octopus, Right - Marinated Kangaroo Skewer & Tomato Chutney

On different occasion, I've tried some of their food and they were great to be consumed alone or with beer. Their gourmet woodfired pizza were amazing especially their prawn pizza and the lamb pizza. With an open concept kitchen, you get to see the pizza chef in action all the time, I guess he likes that kind of limelight ALOT.

Grilled Chorizo & Frites

Their mussels cooked with pernod and garlic was one of the best mussels dish I've ever had, too bad they replaced it with mussels cooked in tomato sauce. Their oysters with shallot vinaigrette at $3.50 each was as fresh as you can get. Grilled chorizo and homemade frites with skin on, is exactly the kind of beer accompaniments everyone loves. However, the frites we had that night were a tad soft, we wished it can be in the fryer for longer to crisp them up.

Nachos, Zucchini, Capsicum, Guacamole, Jalapenoes

Despite all the carbs and meat we had, the corn cobs with salted butter was a great addition of vege/fibre to our meal. They also have a more substantial dishes if you're after a big meal.

They may be a little busy at times, but their staff always carry a big smile with good vibe yet delivering an intimate service to you and your friends. Little Creatures Brewery is the kind of place you want to go on any time of the day, for drinks or food or just to grab a six pack. If you haven't been, shame on you then!

I heard Creature Loft is a great place to go too, would like to try that one day!

Opening hours:

Mon - Fri 10am -12am

Sat & Sun 9am -12am

Little Creatures Brewery

42, Mews Rd,

Fremantle

(08) 9430 5155

Mundaring Truffle Festival

2010-08-05T22:24:00.003+08:00

Last weekend was the annual event of Mundaring Truffle Festival held at Sculpture Park up at Perth Hills - Mundaring. Apart from celebrating the sweet harvest of truffle, there were also a range of quality local produce on offer at the gourmet produce market.

If you went to Good Food & Wine Show Perth last month, this event is something similar but more exciting, you can get more personal with the producer and it was less commercialized too. Imagine warm sun, fresh produce, talk show, cooking demonstration, fine food and live music at a more affordable price. I personally think this event is better than GFWS, less rowdy crowd and more family and matured crowd.

We decided to go to the festival last minute, thus we missed out on The World's Longest Truffle Lunch and other ticketed event hosted by local celebrity chef. We arrived 15mins after the festival kick-off, but we were stucked at the queue for buying tickets to get in. *Note to self: next time must buy tickets online! With $20, we got ourselves the entry ticket to the festival and also the ticket for Perth Hills Wine Show.

Once we got in, we were greeted by all these good quality artisan fare produced here in WA. European Foods has a tasting tent for demonstrations, imported food tasting, and lots of imported cheese tasting.

We tried an array of different cheeses, but the stand out was a cheddar cheese with truffle slices. It has a very smooth taste with strong and aromatic truffle aroma through it, unfortunately it was sold out. Later I found out they also have another truffle cheese available, it wasn't as good as the first one, but was good enough and I ended up buying a piece for $5. They were also selling other cheeses from as low as $1, the crowd went almost crazy over good quality imported cheese at very low price.

We were also lucky enough to be last 4 person to sit in the Tasting & Appreciating Good Coffee class organised by Braziliano/Silvana Coffee. As much as I love drinking coffee, I was never trained how to differentiate the characteristic of a cup of coffee. The host of the class was the 3rd generation coffee roaster for Braziliano, she was also one of the contestant who represented Australia in previous year World Barista Championship.

We were asked to taste 5 different cup of water and work out each of their characteristic - sweet, salty, sour, bitter, neutral. We were then asked to taste 4 different cup of coffee which were placed in front of us and try to work out the brand - Braziliano (for plunger coffee), Silvana (for espresso), single origin, and Australia's top coffee brand (Nescafe). The short class was well rewarded, I think I've learnt some interesting technique of coffee cupping.

It was around lunch hour, and we found ourselves walking towards Licensed Food Piazza, where WA's finest chefs and top restaurant selling truffle themed dishes at under $10. Each stall has long queue and everyone of them offering tantalizing truffle themed dishes. Restaurant Amuse were selling truffle custard tart, truffle pop corn, truffle fairy floss, and truffled pork crackling (my eyes almost fall off when I saw it, but it was sold out :(. )

Red Cabbage's Truffle & Pork Hotdog - $5 (delicious)

Red Cabbage's Truffle & Duck Soup - $5 (Strong duck flavour, very aromatic)

Slow Food Perth's Truffle Risotto - $10

Linley Valley Pork stall, various restaurant stall

Clarks' Pork pie with Mash & Truffle - $5

Truffle & Parsley Soup - $5

Mondo butcher's Moon Burger (huge piece of pork patties, well flavoured)

Chicken Liver Parfait with Truffle & Baguette - $12 (generous portion)

Choux Cafe's Truffle Macaron - $15 (orgasmically good, hands down highlight of the day)

Choux Cafe's macaron tower

There were alot more food stalls from The Loose Box, Incontro, Must Wine Bar and others, but we can only eat that much, perhaps we'll go back next year for more. The festival was trying to be eco friendly, instead of using plastic boxes, plates and bowls, they were using this eco friendly, recycled cups, bowls and plates made out of material from skin of a tree. There were plenty of bins, recycle bins and portable toilet at the event ground, there were a huge licensed and non licensed dining area with plenty of tables and chair for you to sit down.

After our lunch, we headed to the Perth Hills Wine Show marque for wine tasting. It wasn't a big marque, but there were about 15 wineries from our hills showcasing their wine. Personally, I don't think I have ever tried wine from our backyard, I always opted for Margaret River wine, and this wine show had certainly open my mind to Perth Hills' wine. They were surprisingly good and the price for a good bottle of wine is cheaper than the more commercialized MR region's wine. I walked out the show with a bottle of Western Range's Old Well 2006 Classic White - $10 and a bottle of Western Range's Lot 88 2006 Shiraz Grenache - $15.

We walked out of the marque for more food especially after tasting all the wine, and headed to the amphitheatre for truffle dog demonstration. We were 5 minutes late to see the demonstration, so we might missed out on the hunting demonstration, we got to meet the truffle dog nevertheless.

They were friendly and tame but they looked a little tired though!

Chef Alain Fabregues book signing session

It was a fun day out and it was well organised, I wished we have more time to sit in one or two session of Food For Thought and Cooking Demonstration. We went home with our belly full of truffle and hands full of shopping goodies. Best value of the day - 1kg of Silvana's coffee bean, almost 1kg of Baci chocolate, a few bottle of Aqua Panna, an apron and a cap for only $25.

Don't worry if you have over active kids, just throw them in the zorb balls for only $20 whole day, anyone?

Dragon Palace

2010-07-30T17:36:00.000+08:00

Due to recent disappointing dim sum experience at Dim Sim Cafe, which didn't really satisfy our craving for dim sum, we were back to one of our favourite dim sum places 4 days later for a guaranteed dim sum fix.

This is definitely not my first time here. I have been back since their opening, bringing different groups of friends, families and overseas visitor each time. This is because the place is spacious, no queue, clean, attentive, good quality crockery and tableware and best of all, it offers a huge variety of dim sums. Also we almost work out what's best to have here and what's not.

Clockwise from top left: Steamed prawn dumpling, steamed prawn and chive dumpling, steamed pork & prawn dumpling, steamed spare ribs.

Above mentioned are pictures of some of the top 10 you-must-try-items at Dragon Palace.

Steamed prawn dumpling (Har Gao): Fresh bursty prawns with a crunchy bite, wrapped in rice flour dumpling skin that wasn't too thick nor too thin, it was just nice and not breaking apart. The portion was bigger compared to other dim sum places in Perth.

Prawn and chive dumpling: If you think steamed prawn dumpling is lacking in depth, try prawn & chive, the fragrance of chive goes really well with bursty prawns.

Steamed pork & prawn dumpling (Siu Mai): They do it differently here in Dragon Palace. Instead of using mixed pork and prawn mince , they use pork chunk. Some people might not like it chunky, but with this you get to see what you get and taste what you see, it has better texture too.

Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce: I also like their spare ribs because they steam it with taro/yam and black bean. It's a real joy to have some yam bites, as it is not commonly found in Perth.

Steamed BBQ pork buns aka Char Siu Pao: Their homemade buns are very soft and fluffy, and the smoky, sweet and caramelized pork mixture enhances the whole "melt-in-your-mouth" experience.

Steamed egg yolk bun: You've got to try this especially if you have never tried salted egg before. They have 2 versions: steamed or baked. Steamed is the savoury version and baked falls under dessert category. The bun is so fluffy I wanna die!!! (imitation of a new movie, Despicable Me) Hiding underneath the soft bun is warm and gooey salted egg yolk, just like a beautifully prepared chocolate fondant.

Clockwise from top left: Egg tart, chili pepper squid tentacles, steamed rice flour roll with prawn, pan fried turnip patties with chinese sausage in xo sauce.

Siu Mai of prawn and quail egg: I've tried this on a very rare occasion. I don't normally see this dish on the steaming trolley, but it's a well-remembered dish after only one attempt.

Pan-fried turnip patties with chinese sausage in XO sauce: After many visits to Dragon Palace, I've only tried this morsel the other day. Despite being big in portion and look slightly oily, it tasted divine. Yes, look can be deceiving sometimes, the texture of turnip patties here is just right, not too hard or chewy and the chinese sausage added more flavour together with the XO sauce, it makes you keep wanting more.

Egg tart: How can one end their dim sum session without having egg tart? The egg tart here is as good as others in Perth. Flaky tart case, smooth and fluffy egg mixture.

Durian Puff

Durian Puff: The highlight of having dim sum at Dragon Palace! Durian is the 'king of fruit' and can be found in South East Asia when they are in season. Some love the taste and smell of it and some loathe it, especially people from the western counterpart. It's just like blue cheese, most Caucasian love it but Asian just couldn't accept it. Durian might be smelly and stinky, but the durian variety that they are using in Dragon Palace are not of the strong variety, so fear not. The pastry is one of a kind, very light, flaky and crispy, and wrapping thread of REAL durian inside, warm and fragrant. I remember trying this dish the first time, me and my friend almost teared because it was that good and we missed eating REAL durian. So, if you've never tried durian before, maybe this is the good way to start trying it, I'm sure you'll like it!

Although their posh exterior might makes you think it can be quite expensive. However, their price for dim sum ranging from $3.90 - $5.90, it may be a few cents more expensive than other dim sum places, but their portion is bigger and service is equally good.

So, I have just shared one of my favourite place for dim sum in Perth, and if you haven't been, you should! They are open for dim sum everyday and their grand exterior makes it hard for you to miss it.

Opening Hours:

Weekdays 10:30am -3pm;

Weekend: 10am -3pm

Dinner: 6pm - til late

Dragon Palace

66, Francis St,

Northbridge

(08) 9228 2888

Low Down Espresso Bar

2010-07-27T21:25:00.001+08:00

Cappuccino - $3

Just last week, there has been a dispute (it might just be overly strong, let's just say an article in The West) over expensive coffee price in Perth as compared to Melbourne. I may have to agree, a regular cup of flat white in Perth might be $0.10 or $0.20 higher than Melbourne or Sydney, but Hannah from Mooba Espresso beg to differ. Also on the same day of the said article being published, I discovered Perth's cheapest coffee in the CBD.

I ain't kidding, a regular flat white cost me only $3 and a short mac or espresso is only for $2.50. I almost had the shock-of-my-life, when the barista asked me to pay $3, I froze for a while and couldn't keep the smile away from me and said "that was cheap!".

Low Down Espresso Bar is a very small, almost kiosk size like cafe hidden inside Cloisters Arcade, I did doubt when I was walking through Cloisters Arcade whether there's gonna be awesome coffee inside this old fashioned building. It was about 4pm and every other shops in the arcade has closed, it was like walking into a haunted building. Anyway, we walked our way through the end, and there goes Low Down Espresso Bar, still churning out excellent coffee.

Low Down has simple yet contemporary decor, edgy yet indie, it was a mismatch with the entire place. Anyhow, this is the place to get great quality coffee at a very low price, perhaps lower than Melbourne?

Flat White - $3

One more thing that I really should mentioned is their service. No doubt, I was there at 4pm, possibly the quietest time of the day, but yet they still have the effort to provide a non intrusive but caring service. When the staff delivered our coffee, he asked whether he can get any water for us (the water jug & glasses were practically next to us), and so he did and poured it for us. I go to many places for coffee at 4pm, but no one actually provide this kind of personal service.

Cherry & Chocolate Cookie

While we were sipping away and tasting the coffee, possibly munching on the chocolate button that came with our coffee (yea right, $3 for a cup of flat white come with a chocolate button!), the staff gave us a cherry and chocolate cookie for free, he thought it would be good to go with coffee. We were so happy, because these days people don't give away free cookies to customer! The cookie were really nice, with enough sweetness and bitterness, it complimented well with coffee. I absolutely love this cookie not for the fact that it was free, but the texture of it was really nice, quite soft in the middle thus giving me a melt-in-the-mouth kinda texture.

Instead of trying some other coffee shop next time when I'm in the city, I'll definitely be going back to Low Down for quality Fiori coffee at very low price and warm service.

Opening Hours: Weekdays 7am - 5pm

Low Down Espresso Bar

Shop 16a, Cloisters Arcade,

Hay St,

Perth.

(08) 9226 3041

Taurus Hawker Foods

2010-07-24T01:39:00.001+08:00

Taurus Hawker Foods should be one of the few places for Malaysian or Singaporean to get homesick hawker's food fix. They offer a huge variety of hawker foods, it usually takes me a long while to figure what I want to eat. If you're having the same dilemma like me, it's best that you decide as quick as possible because the queue during peak hour can be quite scary.

Prawn Noodle

The prawn noodle that I was having was quite authentic, the only thing that is lacking is the spicy kick from the sambal which usually come together with it in Malaysia. Nontheless, the prawn were bursty, the pork slices were soft, and most importantly the prawn broth was full of prawn flavour.

Assam Laksa

Assam Laksa though was a disappointment, it was too red to begin with thus it was way too spicy for a person to enjoy it. The canned pineapple didn't add authenticity into it, as it was too sweet probably from soaking in the can liquid. Assam Laksa is supposed to be salty, sour, spicy, subtle sweetness and aromatic. If you can't get all these element right, it ain't a good assam laksa. For Taurus, it lacks of saltiness from shrimp paste, lacks of sourness from tamarind and lacks of fresh herbs which enliven the whole dish.

ABC or Ice Kacang (Shaved ice with syrup)

I reckon kids will love the shaved ice, it was loaded with condensed milk, colourful syrup and make sure you dig it right through to the bottom, there'll be hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

If you live nearby and have never try Taurus, so should you, with the huge variety on the menu, I'm sure you'll be able to find one that you would like to try. Their Hainanese chicken rice, Fried Kuey Teow and Nasi Lemak are popular among the community.

Taurus Hawker
Shop 10, 113 Collins Road,
Willetton
Opening hours: Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 9pm

The Como

2010-07-23T21:38:00.001+08:00

Some says Como Hotel serve one of the best pub food south of the river. We were there on a Thursday night, without a reservation and was quite confident that we will get a table. We arrived at 7pm with our friends, later to find out that they were actually fully booked that night, unless we don't mind sitting out at the verandah (it was a very cold night) or at the bar. With that, we chose to dine at the bar, but we wouldn't get any service from the restaurant staff. We didn't mind as we were expecting a to go for a late night movie. So, no table service, no fancy table set up nor comfy chair and we have to order food at the bar. It was our fault entirely as we didn't make any reservation, so remember to make booking next time when you're planning for a dinner at Como Hotel.

Kangaroo loin (med-rare), with truffle oil and portobello mushroom risotto with plum chutney and pepperberry sauce ($26.90)

Their menu shown a good mixture of cuisine influence from India to Jamaica. With not just the food from their menu on offer, they have a list of daily special for you to choose too. Fear not, this ain't your ordinary boring pub food, their menu does sound slightly interesting with things like burnt honey and lavender salmon, a boring pub food veteran will be intimidated. They also boast about the good quality produce they use such as Timber hill Pork, Grazier Steaks and Ofe Olive Oil.

Shitake and three chesse ravioli filled with braised leek, shitake mushroom, pecorino, ricotta and parmesan with semi-dried tomatoes, spinach, green onions and a lime & macadamia nut pesto sauce ($20.90) 5 prawns added ($7.50)

The portion was massive, we were competing who has the biggest meal of the night, best of all non of the dish was above $30. Due to an enormous amount of price hike in Perth these days, it's quite rare to pay that little for this kind of food

Special of the day - Braised lamb shank with mash and jus ($25.90)

Despite using good quality local produce, some fine tuning needed in terms of execution. The ravioli had too much big flavour on one plate, although it does show generosity. However, the kangaroo was cooked to perfection, it was tender right down to the throat but the risotto that comes with it didn't quite hit the mark. Braised lamb shank was tender but the outer layer looks a bit dry, as was the mash, it wasn't creamy nor fluffy enough but sure is real potato.

Timberhill 300g pork ribeye on sweet potato mash with oven roasted beetroot, buttered spinach and orange & rosemary glaze ($27.90)

On the other hand, the pork dish was the star of the night. Timberhill pork ribeye was melt-in-the-mouth and the sweet potato mash and roasted beetroot complimented well all together as a dish. It was also the most colourful dish of the night!

Pub food being pub food, we can never compare pub food with contemporary fine dining, but hey we were only paying $81.82 for all the food we had at Como Hotel after having enjoyed the discount from entertainment book. What a good bargain to cure hunger.

Food Quality: 3 outta 5
Ambience: 3 outta 5

The Como
241, Canning Highway
Como
(08) 9367 6666

ABC Soup

2010-07-18T18:42:00.000+08:00

ABC soup is as easy as ABC or 1,2,3! It is one of the most common soup in an Asian family, and well accept by kids too. I think this is also one of the best way to trick kids into eating vegetables or getting their daily nutrition.

Why ABC, one may ask. Dad used to tell me that's because you'll get Vitamin A, B and C at the same times while having this soup.

To make this healthy, hearty and full of nutrition soup, it's very simple.

Ingredients:
2 big brown onion
4 carrots
3 big potato (preferably floury potato like Coliban or King Edward, if not Royal Blue should work)
3 tomatoes (in my case, I've used 5 roma tomatoes)
1 chicken carcass (in my case, I've used 2 chicken drumsticks and 2 chicken wings plus some chicken bones found in the freezer)
approx. 3lt water.
1 tbls white peppercorn (alternatively, it can be quite peppery, not suitable for kids)

Steps:
1. Blanch chicken with hot water for about 5 mins, strained and set aside.
2. Boil 3lt of water in pot.
3. When water is boiling, put in chicken and let it boil.
4. When it's boiling, turn the heat down, and let it simmer for 30mins.
5. Put in onions, carrots and potatoes, let it simmer for a good hour.
6. After an hour, put in tomatoes for another 30mins.
7. Taste the soup, season with salt and pepper.

I like to slow cook my soup for more than 2 hrs, so that all the flavours will infused into the soup. I love having soup during winter, who doesn't right!

Sundays Everyday

2010-07-18T17:10:00.000+08:00

Sundays Everyday is no stranger to uni students and the local community living in city of Melville. Despite going to the same Oriental groceries shop for all these years, I've never been to Sundays Everyday which is just opposite the oriental shop. Probably because the name sounds silly and it didn't give me the impression to take them seriously.

Relatively small size cafe, selling an array of Donburi (Japanese rice bowl dish), Udon & Soba and Sushi, they were all pre-packed and ready to go. Open only for breakfast & lunch, and during lunch hour, the queue can get quite long but service was fast , you might have to wait for table if you're intending to dine in, on the upside, quick table turn over didn't take too long to wait.

Friend of mine told me that they were popular among the locals due to its generous serving and really cheap price. I had Karaage Chicken Don because my friend kept raving about it and said that this is the best karaage in town. For $8.90, my karaage don looks as huge as a mountain, the rice was filled up to the brim the bowl and I got about 15 big pieces of fried chicken. One can never finish it one go, I had to bring half of it home for dinner that night. However, is that the best karaage in town? I certainly have had better, but the one in Sundays Everyday was not bad either, the chicken pieces were juicy and crispy, I have no complain for paying only $8.90.

My friend had their Chicken Katsu Curry Don and it's only $8.50. Japanese curry is usually mild in flavour, and the one here in Sundays Everyday is the same. Portion was generous, chicken katsu was fried to perfection, the bowl was loaded with rice, curry sauce and some vege.

If you like cheap, tasty and generous portion Japanese food, head down to Sundays Everyday, unfortunately they don't open on Sunday!

Opening Hours:
Mon - Fri: 7:30am - 2:30pm

Sundays Everyday
43, Hulme Court
Myaree

Dim Sim Cafe

2010-07-17T17:13:00.001+08:00

Walking down on William Street on a Saturday arvo, you'll see groups of people waiting outside this litttle dim sum eatery for 30mins waiting to be called for available table. This is not an unfamiliar scene here in Northbridge on a Saturday or Sunday, needless to say I love eating dim sum and I have my favourite dim sum place not far off from Dim Sim Cafe.

I went to Dim Sim Cafe when its first opened its' door and I remember it being average, sure the crowd wasn't as crazy as these days. But being a true Asian I am (kiasu), I can't help but wanted to give it another go just because they seems to be doing pretty well these days as the queue is getting longer each day.

Due to its tiny size, the table were all crammed up together, noisy and crowded, one should expect that kinda buzz from a Chinese restaurant especially eating dim sum. While we rubbed shoulder with the patrons next to us, hot chinese tea and steamed trolley were already there.

We picked the usual stuff from the steamed trolley, they were steamed pork dumpling (siu mai), steamed coriander & prawn dumpling, steamed prawn dumpling (har gao), steamed prawn & chive dumpling, steamed juicy pork dumpling (Shanghai xiao long bao), and steamed prawn rice flour roll (cheung fun).

I love prawn dumpling for all my life, so I'll get quite picky when it comes to these little dumpling. However, I'm sad to say, Dim Sim Cafe's steamed dumplings didn't live it to my expectation, the rice flour skin of the dumplings were thick and chewy, yet they were able to break apart when we tried to pick it up using a pair of chopstick. The prawn wasn't as bursty as it should be and the chilli oil that were provided didn't kick up our senses. The soy sauce going with the prawn rice flour roll were wrong, it tasted exactly like Kikkoman, and that's Japanese.

While the steamed dumplings were quite disappointing, we prayed that the deep fried dishes and pastries didn't let us down. Clockwise from top left: deep fried prawn dumpling with mayo, deep fried squid tentacles, egg tart and chicken pie. The deep fried prawn dumpling was just ok and the squid tentacles that everyone rave about was not as good as they were. Perhaps it was a busy day, but it just seems that the chef fried the tentacles separately with the garlic and chilli, and to our horror we saw heaps of MSG sprinkled on the squid. (I should've known Chinese restaurant uses MSG A LOT, but please don't make it so obvious!)

Finally, onto the good stuff, the egg tart and chicken pie were both really good, the pastry were flaky and flawless, exactly how it should be.

Friendly and attentive service is another thing that I should mention, the staff were all pumped and busy yet they still have time to top up our tea, something you don't normally get from a Chinese restaurant.

Me and my dim sum gang were all very full at the end, but we all agreed that it doesn't provide the heavenly satisfying feeling that we used to have after each dim sum session. It's weird because we then craves for more better dim sum after visiting Dim Sim Cafe.

Food Quality: 3 dumplings outta 5
Ambience: 2.5 dumplings outta 5
Service: 3.5 dumplings outta 5
Will I be back? I'll purposely go for the chicken pie and egg tart

Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9.30am – 3pm (CLOSED on Wednesdays )
Saturday, Sunday & Public holidays: 9am – 3pm

Dim Sim Cafe
297, William Street,
Northbridge
(08) 9328 9388

Elixir Coffee Specialist

2010-07-17T00:25:00.000+08:00

Elixir Coffee opened its door earlier this year in January, has since gain great amount of respect from Perth's coffee buff, they are even rated as 1st in Top 20 Cafes in Perth by members of Perthcoffeescape. Well, I've only just get around to this little chic cafe last week to check it out.

We could literally smell the perfumy coffee once we get out from the car, and we can't wait to order a cup of flat white and cappuccino. Because we were there close to closing time, most of their cakes and pastry had all sold out.

I can see why they are able to call themselves a coffee specialist, our coffee came out looking great, the milk was smooth, velvety and sweet. They were using their own blend for milk coffee when we were there, and the blend they were using reminds me of - MEN (it has nothing to do with men's body odour). It was the taste of the coffee, it was strong in flavour and masculine in character but it wasn't bitter nor sour at all with a smooth finish, thus reminds me of a big piece of steak that most men love. I don't know if other people feel the same way like I do, perhaps it could just be my own personal opinion as I'm more accustomed to the strong but aromatic with chocolaty and fruity note especially my personal favourite - Amaro Gayo from Ethiopia.

One thing for sure, Elixir's coffee it's quite unusual in a way and you don't get to taste this elsewhere in Perth, they don't call themselves specialist for no apparent reason. On the side note, I just love the baby blue croatian cups.

Elixir Coffee Specialist
145, Stirling Highway,
Nedlands.
(08) 9389 9333

Good Food & Wine Show Perth 2010

2010-07-11T23:48:00.000+08:00

Last weekend was the 3rd Good Food & Wine Show in Perth (if I'm not mistaken), one of the most looking forward event of the year for food lovers. I went to last year's show without a game plan or so to speak a proper planning, thus I wasn't that well prepared for last year's show and totally missed out on a lot of stuff on offer ie. didn't bring enough cash, didn't expect so much wine and beer to sample, didn't know there were so much to see.

With much anticipation and expectation, I'm more prepared to go to the show this year, GFWS is like the Royal Show to me, very excited.

Before departing for the show, I double checked if I've got all my gear ready. Cash checked, mini wine glass checked, green bag checked, camera checked, tickets checked. Off we go to the train station and head straight to Perth Convention Centre.

This year's show is bigger and better and definitely have more crowd than last year, thanks to the constant reminder from fellow food blogger.

We managed to see 2 celebrity chef show and they are Manu Fiedel and Gary & George, 3 of them were pretty entertaining and fun to watch. Although, I would like to see chef Matt Moran in action, I missed that out last year and this year as well.

However, because we sat through 2 celebrity chef session, we didn't get enough time to sample every exhibit stall, but we've manage to sample most of the food stall. A few new exhibitor added this year, especially Mini Melt Ice Cream, Bravo Gelato and Kikkoman worth mentioning. Didn't take alot of picture though as it was crowded everywhere and my hands were full at all time, spent too much time trying out all these delicious sample.

One of the most looking forward exhibitor gotta be The Truffle & Wine Co., you got to try REAL truffle and other truffle infused product.

This big poo like truffle worth about AUD$1k, of course it doesn't smell like poo, if you're standing near the truffle, you'll get the smell from 3 ft away, the strong scent of earthiness come across quite strong but very unique. I spent some time at the truffle stall trying the wine and all the truffle infused product. It was jam packed with people, everyone trying to get their hands on the truffle product. And they were also selling fresh truffle at a very low price, from as low as $20 and I've got myself a tiny little piece weigh 15g.

A very generous tasting portion of fresh truffle on cracker dipped in truffle & balsamic oil

Apart from The Truffle & Wine Co., some other stand attracts a lot of crowd especially Finlandia Vodka/ Appleton Estate Rum, Great Souther Distilling Co., Matsos Broome Brewery, Belgian Chocolate Mousse, Mini Melts Ice Cream, Luv A Duck and various wine stand.

It was a fun day out eating our lungs out and drinking our way out, in particularly the Bailey's with coffee was quite nice especially after sampling all the salty crackers and spiced chutney. Matsos' ginger beer and mango beer was very refreshing and unique, it's easy to go with the cheese puff that I have in my hand. The vegetarian burger patties from Nicholson Fine Food is something different in a good way, if only I'm a vegetarian that would be my new found favourite.

We kept switching between food and alcohol tasting, just so that we wouldn't be too full or too drunk! Towards the end of the show, when everyone is kinda tipsy or drunk and still queuing up at the wine stall hoping to get the last drop of wine, a few passersby were curious about the yabbie chowder that we're having (picture shown above, sorry it doesn't look that appealing), i guess they were at a point where they need some food to sober up.

I find it quite amusing that all these celebrity chef were treated like a "real celebrity", young girls or stay at home mom were all crazy about them especially the infamous duo - Gary & George. We saw this little girl standing at the side with her parents admiring George, her parents tried their best to catch George's attention and tell him that she is a BIG fan of George and then she ran over to George and hug him, aww! George was so nice to her, he even spontaneously gave her a signed cookbook.

Lucky girl!

After all the sipping and munching, we headed home with a hand full of goodies and belly full of booze and food samples.

This is what we've got from GFWS. A box of truffle goodies (truffle salt, truffle honey and truffle mustard) from The Truffle & Wine Co. for $20, 2 awesome bottle of Moscato from Innocent bystander, Duck shanks for only $5, Kangaroo & Riberry sausage from Goanna Gourmet, 15g fresh truffle for $30, Duck Fat for $5, and Tomato Kasundi from Goan Cuisine. I can sense some duck confit and potato chips cook in duck fat seasoned with truffle salt are on the menu soon.

Although this year's show is better than last year, but the show in Sydney sounds much more exciting of which they have a coffee pavilion, a chocolate masterclass and cocktail flair challenge. I only wish they can feature these on next year's show, and not forgetting the people in the west wants some of these too.

Winter Warmer

2010-07-10T01:02:00.000+08:00

Comfort food, what's your comfort food especially during the winter? Some may go for a Nonna's Bolognese, some opt for a hearty casserole with mash, the Indians have curries as their comfort food, some may even munch on hot fat chips. For me, I love eggs and I love egg sauce based noodle. Whenever I feel rather sick or lost of appetite, egg sauce noodle (or famously known as yin yong) will put a big smile on my face.

Perth's weather had been rather cold in the past fortnight, some serious comfort food is much needed. It was my housemate's turn to cook us dinner the other day, and she cooked one of my favourite comfort food - Fried Kuey Teow with Egg Sauce, it was loaded with abundance of egg sauce cooked with chicken, prawns, fish balls, choy sum, carrot and tofu. It was very much comfort indeed. Loved it!

Egg sauce base noodle is pretty fun to play with, if you like a more luxury version, try adding in marron or crayfish, it gives better flavour.

So, what's your winter warmer comfort food?

Ninniku Jip

2010-07-09T17:24:00.000+08:00

Whenever we drove past Ninniku Jip on Albany Hwy, me and my friends always laugh at it's name, simply due to the fact that it's sounded like erm... female body part in Cantonese! For all these years, we just laughed at it's name but never actually thought of dining at Ninniku Jip. Well, we finally give it a go today.

We then learnt that Ninniku means Garlic in Japanese and Jip means House in Korean, so Ninniku Jip means Garlic House, that sounds better!

Just like it's name, Ninniku Jip is a restaurant that offers both Japanese and Korean cuisine, but most of their dishes are of Korean influence with little Japanese twist such as Miso soup, Tempura and Udon.

I'm not very familiar with Korean cuisine but I'm a huge fan of Japanese cuisine. When it comes to picking what to eat from the huge menu that Ninniku Jip has, I'm just like a headless chicken taking as much time to read every single description on the menu. Despite going for the more common dishes like Stir fried noodles or Korean Sizzling dishes, my dining companion - D wanted to try a Hot Pot dish with Korean round rice cake but must be enjoyed by minimum 2 people, I thought why not give it a go!

While waiting for our meal to arrive, I noticed that they have a children playground area in a childproof room also toilet for disable. It's good to have a big place like this in Perth that welcome family with kids and also people with disability.

Not long after, we were presented with a portable gas stove and a big pot of goodies. We ordered Dukbboki which describe as round rice cake cooked with beef stock, fish cake, chili paste, vegetables and dumplings. For $22.50 per person, the hot pot also comes with rice and 3 sides dishes.

They are Kim Chi (Korean pickled cabbage), Namul (seasoned bean sprouts) and Fried Anchovies. The rice diffuse with a whiff of lovely aroma which is the sesame oil. If you don't already know, sesame oil is widely used in Korean cuisine.

We have to wait for our hot pot to boil before starts eating, but the aroma from the thick red soup tempt me to dive in straight away. The soup is a little different from the usual Kim Chi flavour or the Korean instant noodles broth. This one here is spicy, but sweet, i suspect the sweetness are from the cabbage, carrots and pumpkin, the broth is made out of beef stock, which gave an in-depth flavour other than just being ridiculously spicy. Unlike Sze-Chuan spicy soup, this one here doesn't numb your tongue or your lip but warm you up intensely. Great dish to enjoy during this freezing time of the year.

It may be just a pot with a plate of rice and 3 small serve of side dishes, but it is definitely more than enough for 2 people. The pot is full of goodies, 4 big flavorsome and juicy pork & chive dumpling, fish cakes, fish balls, fried tofu, heaps of different variety of veges and a whole lot of Korean round rice cake.

This is my first time trying the Korean round rice cake, they are white, tube like shape, about 3 inches long, very chewy in texture like chewing on overcooked calamari in a good way but was bouncy at the same time. It is pretty dense too, I feel tremendously full after eating about 2 or 3 of this round rice cake. We left about 8 of them swimming in the pot, couldn't finish it.

Ninniku Jip have a lot of Korean style spicy dishes, some of which are only for the dare devil to try, I couldn't help but noticed the diner sat next to us fan her lip rapidly while sipping on her spicy seafood noodle soup. So if you think you can take the heat, why not try Ninniku Jip. If you have the Entertainment Card, you get to enjoy 25% off total bill too!

867, Albany Hwy
Victoria Park
08 9355 1988

Restaurant Amuse

2010-06-28T20:46:00.002+08:00

This is my way overdue procrastinated post on Restaurant Amuse, went there for Degustation dinner this time last year on my birthday. The content might be dated, but within this year, Restaurant Amuse has been doing a pretty good job, heck they have done a better job now and the standard is no doubt one of the best in town. I recently found the menu for my dinner that night and also the notes that i've written down while eating (there were so many courses, it helps to remember what we've eaten).

As we all know, Restaurant Amuse is one of WA best restaurant that offers great gastronomical experience, impeccable and professional service from the staff and a place for romantic dinner.

We went for the full degustation with matching wine, it was only $115pp (food only) a year ago, but this year they have only increase the price by $5, so not much of a difference. We also uses the entertainment book discount card, it made the dinner more worthwhile.

We were seated at one dark corner, so it's quite tricky taking photo of the beautifully presented food with a normal digital camera, so please bare with the dark and grainy pictures that you're going to see.

We were offered light and fluffy house bread together with French butter to start with, and in the next 3 - 4 hours, we were treated with an ultimate dining experience.

Amuse Bouche - Pumpkin soup with sage beurre noisette, goats cheese and pickled mushroom.

Rich pumpkin soup but light in texture were enhanced with rich flavours like goats cheese and sage burnt butter but was lighten up with pickled mushroom, interesting.

Crab, Sze-Chuan cured Kingfish and Horseradish Avocado with Grapefruit, Salmon Roe

Light and refreshing flavour from seasonal grapefruits and avocado but a hint of heat from the sze-chuan cured kingfish and horseradish, fresh seafood cooked to perfection that offers different kind of texture to the dish.

Chestnut soup, Balsamic Ice-cream, Croutons and Shaved Truffle

Best dish of the night I would say, different depth of flavours seeming through from the earthiness of truffle and chestnut, paired up with an acidity element from Balsamic ice-cream. Being the favourite dish of mine of the night, simply because Chef Hadleigh Troy plays with not only the texture but also the temperature of the food. and of course flavours! Warm earthy soup paired up with icey cold balsamic ice-cream, my palate just went out of the world.

Marron, Caramelised Witlof and Vanilla Beurre Noisette

A rather forgettable course though!~

Rabbit, Foie Gras, Parmesan broth, Linguine & Mascarpone

Rabbit and foie gras was wrapped in silverbeet, light parmesan broth married with gooey but al dente Mascarpone linguine.

Salmon, Scallop and Fennel with Jamon, Citrus Puree, Almond Powder and Bordelaise Sauce

Crispy skin salmon, melt-in-your-mouth scallop and medium-rare salmon, i can eat this all day.

Beef and Bone Marrow with Fondant Potato, Medley of Mushroom and Artichoke puree

Choice of our main, the sauce was great and it was my first time eating bone marrow, interesting texture just like chewing on candy but more like a gelatinous kind of texture.

Pork and Pineapple puree, Black Pudding, Grilled Squid and Pork Jus

Palate Cleanser being served after our mains, it was a Lime & Apple Jelly with Celery (sorry forgot to take picture of it). A trolley cart full of cheeses from around the world pushed towards our table, we were asked if we would like some at extra cost, but we were so full by then and still waiting on the next 2 courses to finish.

Parsnip milk, Yoghurt Sorbet and Toasted Muesli

2nd favourite course of mine, the combination o f parsnip milk with yoghurt sorbet and toasted muesli was something new to me.

Chocolate, Beetroot and Honeycomb

On our last course, my friend secretly informed the staff that it was my birthday and a mini biscuit plaque with "Happy Birthday" was written on it, how sweet! Thank god, they didn't start singing Happy Birthday song in front of other diners.

Petit Four was a little average and disappointing as I've had a totally awesome unforgettable petit four at Vue de Monde, Melbourne.

Menu in Restaurant Amuse changes every month, best way to showcase Chef Hadleigh Troy's skill in using the best seasonal ingredient in WA. You'll be guaranteed that you wouldn't be sampling the same dishes, such a good way to keep things fresh and interesting.

If you are after Mod-Oz degustation flare, Restaurant Amuse is the place to go here in Western Australia.

Food Quality: 4 Amuse
Service: 4.5 Amuse
Ambience: 4 Amuse
Will I be back: Yes, when i save enough for the next round

Restaurant Amuse
64 Bronte Street
East Perth
08 9325 4900

Lavastone Grill

2010-06-27T23:47:00.001+08:00

So what is Lavastone? One would ask.

Lava stone is the volcanic stone originates from inside the volcano, the slab of lava stone is heated to 400c in a specially designed oven. And the meal/meat of your choice will be presented to you on the stone when they are still raw.

Mix Grill

So yea, you gotta do a bit of cooking here, even if you over-cook the meat, you can only blame yourself for it. However, with this method of cooking, it enables all the natural juices and flavours of your meat to stay within itself. And you don't have to worry that your meal will get cold, as the hot lava stone can stay hot to approximately 35mins, good way to enjoy hot food.

Lavastone grill cafe is an old house converted into a restaurant, it might look small from the outside, but it's huge inside with lots of table in different section/rooms of the house/restaurant. Because hot stone grilling is their specialty here and the restaurant wasn't properly designed to be a grill house, you have to be prepared to walk into a smokey room.

We found this place by flipping through the Entertainment Book (Russian Roulette style), of all the possible choice in the book, we happened to flip to this page and decided to give it a try. It was a Saturday night, and the room was filled up with groups of people, noises and smokes.

We had a serve of Garlic and cheese ciabatta roll to start with because we are all very hungry and still waiting for one of our friend to arrive, whom can't seems to find the place. The bread was just average, it is a bit dry and we wish to have more cheese or pesto on it for better texture and better flavour.

Reef and Beef

They have a few selection of bread on the menu, and a small selection of entree on stone. As for mains, it's mainly different type of meat and seafood, they do have Venison Steak and a Game Platter for the more adventurous kind. Vegetarian don't worry, there's also a Vegetarian Platter on the menu with usual suspect such as eggplant, sweetcorn, mushroom and haloumi cheese. Because none of us is vegetarian nor game lover, we ordered the Mix Grill and the Reef and Beef. All mains served with gourmet potato and salad. For those who don't trust their own cooking, there's 4 mains choices that are not served on the stone and are cooked by a chef.

The Reef and Beef ($33.90) has a piece of prime sirloin steak which is already starting to sizzle on the lava stone, on top of the beef, there're 2 pieces of prawns, a scallop and a squid. The slab of lava stone has already dusted with salt (it's the white particles on the stone), so your raw meat has already seasoned (lightly), if you like more seasoning, there's salt and pepper shaker on the table. I squeezed some lemon juice on my seafood while they are sizzling away on the stone. It is also served with 2 dipping sauce - oregano, garlic and coriander dip and lime and dill sauce, the lime and dill sauce was quite nice to go with both the seafood and the beef.

As for the Mix Grill ($29.90, first picture of the post), it comes with portion of beef fillet, chicken tenderloin, pork fillet, lamb and field mushroom, it is also served with bearnaise and brandy peppercorn sauce. The bearnaise sauce was average, as I can't taste any shallot and tarragon in it, perhaps a tad too much vinegar.

After having our mains, we can feel that our stomach is screaming for more food or some desserts. Judging what's on offer on the menu and the caliber of this restaurant, I don't think the desserts will be good, but my dining companion are all going for desserts so are my stomach.

Sticky Date Pudding - $9.90

While the desserts sounded a bit old school, we finally decide on getting a Sticky Date Pudding (to test if they can get it right), a Jamaican Cheese Cake and Don Pedro (Vanilla ice cream top with a shot of Irish Whisky, whipped cream and crushed walnuts), also a cup of flat white and a glass of Jameson Irish Whiskey.

Sticky date pudding was ... let's just say, the Maraschino cherry is the only nice thing on the plate. The pudding was dry, dense, hard and only slightly warm, it wasn't a pleasure eating the pudding, the butterscotch was way too sweet even the vanilla ice cream on the side can't balance the sweetness.

Don Pedro - $15

Don Pedro, sounds nice and foreign, despite the name makes it sounds very exotic, but it doesn't look that unique to us. The chef was way too generous with the Irish Whiskey (I wonder if that's a good thing?), all you can taste is the alcohol and lots of cream. It is definitely a dish from an alcoholic for an alcoholic who just want to get drunk!

Jamaican Cheese Cake - $11.50

The Jamaican cheesecake is the best of all, it is visually appealing albeit the plating style is quite old school and the cheese cake actually taste quite nice and smooth.

The whole experience is quite fun and it's a different kind of dining experience, everyone on the table is so busy engaged in their own cooking, and find it fascinating when we cooked the meat til perfection. It is also a nice place for group gathering, birthday or just seeking a bit of fun for dinner. Having said that, we would prefer Korean BBQ over Lava Stone grill, for better variety of choice, and tastier meat. Lava Stone grill is ok, but we have come into conclusion that we would appreciate more if they put some effort into marinating the meat especially the chicken and lamb.

Service was touch and go, certainly it was a busy night, but the wait staff doesn't seems to make any eye contact with us, it's kinda hard to grab their attention. Whereas, some of the staff looks a bit lost, they don't seems to know what they are doing, that's what happen when you hire backpackers, they just don't stay long enough in one place to learn how it actually works.

Our bill came up to $210.80, because we use entertainment card, we get to enjoy $35 discount on the total bill.

Food Quality: 3 outta 5 lavastone
Service: 2 outta 5 lavastone
Ambience: 3 outta 5 lavastone
Will I be back: I might just pop into a nearby Korean BBQ Buffet

Lavastone Grill
155, Walcott St.
Mt Lawley
08 9328 6669

Curried Potato Fritata

2010-06-22T19:12:00.000+08:00

I was woken up by a housemate of mine cooking up a storm in the kitchen over the long weekend, and yes it was brunch time! I couldn't help but to hear the sound of chopping, the sound of non-stop turning on the gas stove "tak...tak...tak...", all I could see is the HUGE bowl of sliced potato, piles of cabbages, carrots, chopped up field mushroom and a pot of vigorously boiling vege soup. In case you haven't notice, I didn't mention any meat here, that's because this housemate of mine is a vegetarian. While my mind is still half way departing from the dream world, for a second I thought we are going to have guest coming over for lunch. Later only I realised we are not having any guest around, the stacks of potatos, mushrooms and bowls of cabbage and carrots are in fact her meal for the entire week. Due to busy schedule at work, she has no choice but to cook her entire week's meal in a day. That aside, I did smell something good here.

CURRY is all I could smell in every corner of the house. My housemate was kind enough to offer me her potato and cabbage curry (remember, earlier on i said i saw a HUGE bowl of sliced potato that could easily worth 4kg), she cooked way too much potato as if she was cooking for a banquet. As I was on a no-rice/pasta-diet, I was cursing myself for having to eat the curry without any rice at all.

After much contemplating and searching of the fridge, and there I was came up with this brilliant idea to mix the potato curry into one of my favourite ingredient - EGGS.

Curried potato fritata with feta and coriander.

At first I doubt about the combination, then I thought it might just work and without hesitation it does work brilliantly.

I sauteed up some finely sliced shallot, then take it out from the pan and started laying the curried potato nicely courtesy from my housemate, then some sauteed shallot, some feta, last but not least I poured in the already whisk egg with some milk into the pan and top it up with some fresh coriander leaves.

The already sauteed shallot had been nicely caramelised thus contributing some sweetness into the fritata, especially when eating with the aromatic slightly spiced curried potato. The texture was wonderful, you get the slightly crunchy but cooked curried potato, then you have the almost melting feta cheese just go so well together.

There it is, a mix culture fritata, there's element from India, Asian, Mediteraenean, and the basic of all cooking - EGGS.

That's why eggs are my favourite ingredient, they are just so versatile and can be eaten anywhere, anytime, with anyone. Eggs is like my rice, loves.

(CNR) James + Lake

2010-06-21T13:52:00.001+08:00

Took a stroll to Northbrdige the other day, don't you just love how the city mayor trying to revamp it? Of course, the most exciting project of all gotta be Northbridge Piazza, but exactly how many Perth-ian hang out at Northbridge Piazza just like how Fed Square is to Melbournian.

Northbridge might be a slightly dangerous place to go after dark, but if any Perth-ian likes to hang out the way Melbournian does, well you could at (CNR) James + Lake in a more laid back Perth style.

(CNR) James + Lake is the perfect place to sit back and watch the days go by, perhaps some people watching too! Situated at the corner of James and Lake Street, facing the Piazza. Just right under the huge screen where you can find this hip cafe, churning out good quality coffee, cakes, lunch and breakfast.

It is a quaint little place but full of character, friendly staff that are always happy to help, if I am not mistaken there might be free high-speed wireless too. Over here they offer counter service just like any other coffee shop, you then get to choose wherever you want to sit. If you like to listen to the music in the cafe, try to sit inside, if you're looking for a quiet place to chat, head over to the outside area but try the corner, if you like to be the centre of attention, try the front just next to the lawn, but I gotta warn you, the noise from the huge plasma screen might just be too much!

We were there for coffee and cakes after 4:30pm, it's a plus point for them that they are open til 7pm on weekdays and close at 11pm on a weekend. Hurray for a cup of good quality after 4pm coffee!

They use 5 senses coffee bean here, you get to choose to use the blended bean or the single origin. When we were there, they were using this blend from 5senses call "Dark Horse". I prefer the blend from Hush Espresso than the "Dark Horse", don't get me wrong, I still like the coffee here, the barista churn out consistently good coffee, and the texture of the milk is perfect for me, maybe on my next visit I'll try their single blend instead.

It has become such a habit of mine to have coffee at 4ishpm - 5ishpm everyday, and I must have it with cakes. We ordered a raspberry tart and a ricotta cheese cake, they both look really good from the cake display area. The cake was on the ok side though! The comment i received about the tart was just average, I like the taste of the Ricotta cheese cake, though my friend would prefer a creamy and smoother texture.

It's a nice place to chill out with good coffee, good atmosphere, good service and best of all they are open til 7pm or 11pm on the weekend. Be sure to make full use of their special deal such as coffee + muffin for $6 or coffee + cakes for either $8 or $6 (sorry my memory ain't that good eh!)

(CNR) James + Lake Street
44, Lake Street
Northbridge
(08) 9228 8861

Malaysian Food Fair

2010-06-14T19:56:00.000+08:00

Makcik making Kuih Kapit (Nyonya's crispy love letters biscuit)

I still remember clearly on last year's Masterchef when Poh, the runner-up decides on a theme for inventory test challenge. She chose Malaysian as a theme and everyone else was shocked and didn't have a clue what Malaysian cuisine is, I sill remember Julie the winner was panicking and she ended up cooking something more like Thai food.

Har-Mee aka Prawn Noodle

Malaysian cuisine is quite complex and kinda hard to define due to the diversity of it's multi-ethnic population of Malays, Chinese, Indian, Nyonya, Eurasian and Indigenous people of Borneo. Every ethnic group has their own type of food and almost every state has their own signature dish. If you happen to travel to Malaysia, you'll find yourself in the cross road of choosing what to sample, because there are just way too many food to choose from, the sky is the limit in when it comes to Malaysian food, best of all they only cost you around $1.50 for a meal.

Fresh fish ball noodle soup - Teochew's style

Well, this coming Sunday, 20 June 2010, Association of Malaysians in WA (AMWA) will be organising a Malaysian Food Fair at the Mandala Hall, Mandala Crescent, BATEMAN, WA. Event starts from 11am - 3pm.

Malaysian's all-time-favourite - Mee Goreng Mamak style

Many Malaysian home-cooked will be cooking up Malaysian's all-time-favourite street food such as Mee Rebus, Mee Goreng, Laksa, Prawn Mee, Roti Canai, Nasi Briyani, Curry Puff, Nyonya Kuih and many many more. They are all for sales, and don't forget to bring a bag just in case you wanted to buy more for dinner that night!

Yam & Radish Cake - a Nyonya delight

Looking at my photos of Malaysian Food Folder making me hungry now!

Be sure to come down to the Malaysian Food Fair @
Mandala Hall,
Mandala Crescent,
BATEMAN, WA
11am - 3pm
20 June 2010 (Sunday)

Arigataya

2010-06-12T11:06:00.032+08:00

Nothing beats having a bowl of hot noodle soup on a cold wintery night. I am always fond of ramen, and I used to have/still have this dream to travel to Japan, precisely Hokkaido just to eat a bowl of hearty ramen from a street cart when it's snowing.

Few years ago, when I first arrived in Australia, I've had bad experience with the ramen in Australia, the noodle has strong alkaline taste and the broth taste exactly like msg, it was horrible. Then onwards, I held back the idea on eating ramen in Australia. No doubt, there are a lot of sushi place and Japanese restaurant in Perth, some of them are doing some wonderful Japanese food, but not a lot of them actually put their heart into making a proper ramen.

Making ramen require just as much attention to get the right consistency of the noodle and of course the pot of stock. Tonkotsu (pork bone soup base) broth normally takes up to a day to get that beautiful thick and silky white consistency, all taken from pork's bone marrow. Slurping on the soup, it sent you straight to heaven.

Was heading down to Hawker's Cuisine in Northbridge the other night, I was in awed to walk past Arigataya - a relatively new Japenese RAMEN Restaurant.

Arigataya is clean, has simple decor and friendly service. There are about 40 items on the menu and half of which are different variation of ramen; you can have them cold, as dipping noodles (Tsukemen) or in a broth (which you can choose either with soy sauce or salt). If you are not a fan of noodle dish, no biggie, there's always rice dishes like Chicken Teriyaki Don or Chicken Katsu Don, price starting from $7. They also have Gyoza, Takoyaki, Chicken Teriyaki and etc as part of their small range of side dishes but if you are looking for sushi or sashimi, you'll surely be disappointed.

We quickly order a Chicken Karaage Ramen, a Gyoza Ramen and also a side dish of Takoyaki Balls best known as Occy Balls. Water and tea are free, and you need to get it from the counter yourself. If you're a big eater, extra serve of noodles are free of charge, you gotta love Arigataya for this.

Our meal was served rather quickly, and we constantly see the Japanese Ramen Master delivering bowls of ramen goodies to the pass. Which is a good sign that I know that my bowl of ramen is in good hands.

There are 8 consistently shaped occy balls on the plate, which is looking really good, it was covered with tons of tiny bonito flakes and drizzled with Japanese mayo and BBQ sauce (who doesn't love Japanese mayo! They are so good). On the side, were some homemade pickled ginger. The takoyaki from other places are generally pretty scary, they were either too mushy or too chewy or they are too stingy with octopus. But the one here is pretty good, soft and light but not chewy in texture, best of all it was loaded with cubes of occy. At $6.50, they are indeed value for money.

When we first got our bowl of ramen, we were shocked to see the serving here is pretty decent, I don't think I'll need that extra noodles although they are for free. We chose soy sauce soup base, at first I thought the broth is going to taste like soy sauce. But when I first got the noodle, the first thing I did right after taking photos of it was to take a sip of the soup. It doesn't taste like soy sauce at all, it taste like Chashu (roast pork), instinctively I know the broth is made out of pork but not exactly a Tonkotsu broth. With thick layer of fat on top of the broth and some particles swimming in the broth, you know exactly that the Ramen master here doesn't skim on ingredients. Due to high content of pork fat, the broth is definitely not recommended for people who have heart problem and some other health issues or those who are on diet. But heck, you can still go for the one without the broth!

That was the Chicken Karaage Ramen - $14, it was served with 5 chunks of large chicken pieces deep fried to perfection, bamboo shoot, hard boiled egg, rape flower (that's the vege that actually look more like choy sum), seaweed and julienne of spring onion. The chicken were juicy and tender, but I've had better karaage somewhere else. Highlight of the topping has to be the hard boiled egg, the yolk was soft in the center and it's been braised in soy, that's why it's has a caramel colour on the outside, it was so yummy.

We also spotted the Ramen machine upstairs while on our way to the toilet, and it's a relief to know that the ramen is homemade here; so much so that the texture is actually quite good, it's springy and has a bit of bite to it.

I had the Gyoza Ramen - $14, it was served with 5 huge deep fried gyoza together with the rest of the topping you'll find from Chicken Karaage Ramen, except that this doesn't come with the oh-so-yummy egg :(.

You can tell that the gyoza is homemade too, as they were pretty generous with the filling, it was full of pork mince and vege in it. Now, you would have thought that after soaking the gyoza into the soup, the skin will be soggy and horrible. It doesn't happen here in Arigataya, well probably after 30mins but it was still crunchy when I had them.

Head over to Arigataya if you're in the mood for authentic Japanese Ramen, just forget about dieting for one night!

ARIGATAYA
62, Roe St
Northbridge
(08) 9227 7901

Opening Hours:
Mon - Sat: 11:30am - 2:30am, 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Sunday: 11:30am - 2:30am, 5pm - 9pm