Eat Out: Kimchi Hut

My mum and I went to have korean today for lunch. We ate at Kimchi Hut. The best thing about eating at a Korean restaurant is that they always provide banchan, which are side dishes to accompany the main meal.

Sweet marinated chives, kimchi, coleslaw and seasoned bean sprouts. I didn't like the kimchi, it tasted too sour for me. But the rest were great.

My mum ordered spicy kimchi stew. Again, it was too sour for my liking. But it had lots of yummy enoki mushrooms and tofu in it.

I had one of my favourite Korean dish: bibimbap. I ordered a spicy squid version. I love the array and variety of vegetables I always get in bibimbap. So prettily arranged as well.

After mixing, time to tuck in! Look how the raw egg on top gets cooked as I mix the bibimbap. =DDDDD

The squid was plump and juicy, and the generous, perfectly seasoned ingredients in my bibimbap made me really delighted.

Eat Out: Cakeworld + Passionflower

Wow lately there has been lots of posts about eating out, hasn't it? On a fine sunny day like today, my friend and I decided to try Passionflower's desserts. I've heard that their desserts are extremely over-priced... and they are.

Two scoops in a waffle basket for $11. Gosh, really expensive ice cream. But people still flock to Passionflower because of their exotic flavours. Black sesame, green tea, azuki, jackfruit, sticky rice, taro just to name a few. The flavours below are taro and jackfruit, two flavours that are harder to come by. The taro was disappointing, it tasted like vanilla ice cream, no taro flavour at all. The jackfruit was marginally better though. I could actually taste jackfruit.

Strawberry filled crepes with strawberry and white chocolate hazelnut ice cream, $15.50. The best thing about this was the strawberry ice cream. But then again, it tasted like those ones you can buy in a 1 kg carton for 1/3 of the price. The crepes were rubbery, and the white choc hazelnut ice cream tasted like vanilla.

Maybe I would come back one day.... to try some of their other desserts in martini glasses. They look scrumptious. But stay away from their crepes.

After all that ice cream, we decided to take a walk in a futile attempt to work out the calories we just consumed. Then we came across Cakeworld, which was having a grand opening. They were giving out coupons for free coffee and 15% off storewide. Free coffee! Why not?

My long black coffee. Rich and bitter, perfect with something sweet.

A tiramisu daifuku and dango purchased from a nearby Japanese restaurant Ramen-ya. The dango came with seaweed, which you're supposed to wrap around the dango. It's a new experience for me, tasting sweet and savoury, chewy and crunchy all at once. Pretty yummy.

The tiramisu was ok, I would much rather have matcha or azuki flavours.

We couldn't resist a taro cake on display.

It was good, but nothing really special about it. Very mild taro flavour.

Eat Out: Lux Bite + Story in a Cup

I went to Lux Bite yesterday, to properly try out their desserts this time, and not just their macarons. And what they say below certainly was true, I couldn't stop ogling at their sweet displays, haha.

Here are some of their amazing macarons...

...as well as their plated desserts! My target for the day, hehehe.

The first order: Supersized love. It tastes exactly like a giant fererro roche. Smooth hazelnut and chocolate ganache encasing a hazelnut in the middle, sandwiched by two meringues. I love the hazelnuts on the outside, it adds a great textural component. Incredible.

After it has been attacked by me, it's not so pretty any more...

Second order: Meringue Monster. This was number 1 on my list of foods to try, because it was essentially a watermelon cake. That's right, who knew watermelon and cake could go so well together?

On the bottom is a white chocolate sponge, topped by a layer of strawberry and another layer of watermelon mousse. Then the whole thing is surrounded by light, fluffy meringue, sprinkled with freeze dried watermelon powder. It was such a refreshing and light dessert, everything melted in my mouth like a cloud.

Of course, I can't leave without buying home some macarons, can I? Kaya toast, passionfruit, and mandarin saffron.

I also brought home another dessert: Lemon Meringue. I know, I'm horrible, my stomach doesn't listen to my head. Or my wallet for that matter.

But it was so worth it! I love the marshmallowy topping, and the dark chocolate on the bottom of the tart. Lots of meringues for the day, haha.

I went for frozen yoghurt at Story in a Cup. It's a self-serve yoghurt bar, and reminded me of my childhood days where I would construct the biggest ice cream sundae, overflowing with toppings in buffets. But they charge by weight, so I had to enforce some self-control. T^T

First you fill your cup with any flavours of frozen yoghurt, then top it with any topping you like. I went for all the flavours, haha. The cookies and cream tasted like Yakult. I'm not even kidding. It's even a yellow Yakult colour. I love Yakult, but I put it in my mouth expecting cookies and cream, so it was an unexpected surprise. My favourite would be the belgian chocolate. Sweet, and slightly bitter, just like dark chocolate, yummmmm.

Eat Out: Epic Food Post

Just thought I should share some of the notable things I've been eating so far this year! I love looking back at the food I've eaten, 'coz it brings back memories....

This was at Tomodachi, a sushi train restaurant on the top level of Melbourne Central. We were celebrating one of my friend's birthday. Just as well there was a special promotion going on, so all plates are $2.80. Singapore is still wayyyyy cheaper though! TT^TT

The sushi are nice and fresh, we could see the chefs making the sushi and placing them on the belt.

The plates stacked up as my friend's bottomless stomach seem to never be filled... Never bringing her for sushi train again. Maybe for buffet instead.

This was at one of the many many many Vietnamese restaurants along Victoria road, Richmond. It's like a mini Vietnam, where you can find lots of shops selling fresh Viet bread rolls, three colour desserts, Asian groceries, random nick nacks, etc. So at Thanh Ha 2 I ordered Bun Tom Xao, which are grilled prawns on top of vermicelli noodles, Viet herbs and shredded vegetables. It is a very light and refreshing dish, i love how healthy it is too. It's my favourite type of Vietnamese food.

In the last day of uni right before mid-semester break, I went out to have a celebratory lunch at Oriental Spoon. I've been eyeing the fish roe bibimbap ever since I saw their menu. I have to say, it's the best bibimbap I've ever tasted.

After the bibimbap has been mixed well, you can see all the fish roe has been cooked on the sides of the piping hot stone bowl. The first mouthful was full of textural goodness because of the crunchy fish roe. Can I just say their unlimited kimchi is to die for as well.

After 3 bowls of kimchi that's been refilled, my mouth was burning. I NEEDED ICE CREAM. But I went for the healthier choice at Cacao Green. The matcha frozen yoghurt is creamy, not too sweet, and right a hint of bitterness from the matcha. Delicious ^^

Blueberry waffles at Geláre cafe. Crispy outside and warm fluffy inside, heaven.

I visited this amazing cake studio, Burch and Purchese. They had mouth-watering, jaw-dropping works of art. I won't even call them cakes because they are all too pretty to be eaten! I felt like a 5 year old kid in a candy store.

A beautiful display of cloud meringues with freeze dried strawberry, raspberry, blueberry powder. Really light, airy and delicious.

And their incredible array of cakes....

...truly made me want to buy them all.

That is their wall of ingredients, and you could specifically choose your ingredients for a cake you want to commission them to make. Some magnificent examples there.

And these are the cakes I bought. Raspberry, champagne, lychee, white chocolate. I like how they provide a card that explains all the components of the cake.

Vanilla, pistachio, lemon and green tea on the left, and banana, caramel and rum on the right. The green tea is my absolute favourite, and they all taste as good as they look. Maybe even better.

Chilli risotto at Giraffe Cafe. It is run by Koreans, so they've added korean flavours like gochujang. It's a really yummy flavour combination.

Celebrating Father's day at Carlucci's. My fettuccine with seasonal vegetables. First time I had bok choy in pasta, haha!

After our mains we also had orange blossom crème brûlée. I love love love the rich dark chocolate layer at the bottom.

Raspberry and chocolate crepes at Creperie La Triskel. Paper thin crepes with the tart raspberries and sweet vanilla ice cream, mmmm.....

Octopus bulgogi at Omogari. The pump juicy octopus are a real winner in this dish.

中秋节

Mooncake festival is tomorrow! That was why during the weekend my mum and I were busy making mooncakes. Snowskin mooncake in particular, as the baked one requires a special oven and equipment and so on. Plus snowskin mooncakes simply taste better. We made three different types this year: taro, pandan and black sesame. Aren't they pretty looking?

After preparing, steaming and cooling the dough (which requires a lot of waiting. Patience is not something my mum and I have. We just want to get started with shaping the mooncakes!), it is ready to be formed.

Here are some of the pink dough, flavoured with strawberry.

It will be the wrapping around the black sesame filling. I made this paste from black sesame powder, coconut milk, sugar and added some toasted sunflower seeds for crunch.

Here's the mooncake mould. Always remember to flour it well so that the mooncake won't get stuck! It is very hard to get out once it's stuck. All you'll be left is a ball of mush. From personal experience.

And then you whack whack whack till the mooncake drops out. Best to do it gently or the mooncake might fall to the side and lose its lovely shape.

And taa-daa! A rose pink mooncake has formed. Just brush off the excess flour and put it in the fridge to firm up. Or simply eat it straight away like we did. =P

This is the yam mooncake, my favourite one.

And the pandan and black sesame. Black sesame is my second favourite. I was actually surprised at how tasty the filling was. Had to stop myself from eating them all.

I also made kimchi, because the ingredients are so cheap now! Only $0.99 for 1 fat head of chinese nappa cabbage. Who can say no to that? It requires 3 day of fermentation at room temperature, before going into the fridge and ready to eat. It tastes delicious now, can't wait to see how it will taste after 3 days. =DDDD