Happy birthday Joe!

Celebrating a friend’s birthday with delicious pizza at Locale. I think it is definitely made with love. 
#cbr #instafood #canberrablogger #canberrafood #instafood #food #foodie #pizza #localcan  

 

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Orient Kitchen

The lovely Canberra foodie and I caught up at her local shops to explore the new eatery that was Orient Kitchen. Weston Creek is already a hive of different eateries but it was handy to have a ‘Chinese roast meats’ place closer to home.Homemade pan fried dumplings chicken and garlic chive dumplings (12 pieces $13.80). These were pretty tasty although I prefer my dumplings a little more cooked to have that crunchy exterior. I like how they served this with Chinese vinegar and ginger.Mixed BBQ platter (2 choices) roast pork and roast duck ($18.80). I thought the pork had an extremely crunchy crackling and slightly over salted but I did preferred it over the roast duck. I found the roast duck pieces to be too thick (breast pieces) and the meat felt a little gritty and dry; the bony pieces that had a good meat to skin ratio were fabulous though.Shantang chicken boneless crispy chicken in spicy tangy vinegar sauce ($16.80). I really enjoyed this dish as there was plenty of chicken with crispy skin, lots of sauce and it wasn’t too salty. I think if there was more cucumber it would be more refreshing on the palette.They were a bit busy but food and service were very prompt. It felt like more of a take-away or quick meal atmosphere as Canberra foodie and I quickly found ourselves to be the only people left in the restaurant and we felt obliged to leave when they were packing up around us.

There are many menu items that sound tasty at a reasonable price, I’d be keen to go again.

Venue: Orient Kitchen

Address: 19 Brierly Street, Weston, ACT

Phone: (02) 6288 3330

Ying and Yang

I opted for bacon and cheese kransky while TimmyC wanted waffles with ice cream and maple syrup. At least you know the other person won’t steal your breakfast. #yingyang #breakfast #canberrafood #canberrablogger #foodie #food #instafood

 

Does this count as #dudefood Gary?

Guild sneak peek

Guild- they are prepared for anything. I like that!

#localcan #guild #cbr

Black like my soul. 
Sometimes I just get cravings for Asian flavours, can someone please get me a scoop of black sesame ice cream?

#latergram #delicious #icecream #blacksesame  

 

Straya day

Trying to eat as much pavlova things as I can today. After delicious pavlova gelato from #Messina we grabbed a pavlova macaron from #zumbo 
#strayaday #foodie #foodporn #foodblogger #canberrablogger #macaron #pavlova #macromode #food #foodgasm #instafood #instadaily #thestar #delicious  

 

Sokyo Ramen

Before I come home, I have some business to take care of. Found you #sokyoramen !
#squeeeee #popup #food #foodie #foodgasm #foodporn #foodblogger #canberrablogger #ramen #sokyo #thestar #instafood  

  

 

Happy birthday Mummy

It is my Mummy’s birthday today! Was it a coincidence that her birthday cake was one of my favourite cakes… Yes 😏 I love chiffon cakes and Pishon Patisserie does them so well. #happybirthday #cake

 An obligatory #aquas photo while I’m in Sydney. Milo with toasted marshmallow served in a cup because I cannot eat fast enough without it melting on my hands. 

#softserve #food #foodie #canberrablogger #foodporn #dessert #delicious #instafood #sydney #westfieldchatswood
 

Cibo sneak peek

Sneak peek at #cibo where my friends are I sampled a large selection of their menu. My friend recommended that I get the palacinke- a Balkan style crepe filled with Nutella served with a Bon Bon rocher gelato. #sneakpeek #cbr #localcan #woden #food #foodie #canberrablogger #foodporn #dessert #crepe #palacinke  

 

Galleon Cafe – Melbourne series

 

TimmyC’s trendy cousin took us out for brunch at the Galleon Cafe near Ackland street; it is a hipster central cafe decked out in mismatched vintage furniture (it reminded us of A bite to Eat in Chifley) and really friendly staff. There was a bit of a line up at the front to get a seat but since we didn’t mind squishing to one side whilst sitting outside, we got a table fairly quickly.

Us seating outside smooshed to one side, just trying out the fish eye camera lens that I got for Christmas.

A peek inside the cafe: the view from the outside.

There was a bit of a wait for food and beverages but they were super busy.

Scrambled tofu with mushroom, spinach and crispy fried enoki with sour dough toast – vegan ($14.50). I surprised even myself when I ordered this but I love a good tofu scramble ever since my friend made an awesome one for me years ago (hello Mellie!). I think because it doesn’t have a sauce or bacon, it needed a good dose of flavour or salt from something and this tofu scramble just didn’t have that. I think if it had more salty notes or chilli it would have been a lot better. I love the addition of fried enoki and I think I’ll be doing that more often in my own home cooking.

Eggs Benedict made with our house made hollandaise sauce with bacon and two eggs ($14.00). I really liked their house made hollandaise and was sporadically dipping my forkful in it. The eggs were probably ever so slightly over cooked, maybe 30 seconds less it would have been perfect. 

Poached eggs on toast (full serve $10.00) with a sweet potato hash brown ($4.50).

Banana and date loaf (baked in house) toasted with vanilla bean ricotta (half serve $4.00?). I am always torn between savoury and sweet for breakfast, so today I decided I will have both. It probably didn’t really matter what was underneath because the vanilla bean ricotta stole the show! A semi sweet, rich creamy paste that I smothered all over the bread. I’m going to have to start making my own ricotta soon.

Fresh juice orange, pineapple and ginger ($7.50). This was a nice refreshing sweet juice but I couldn’t taste any ginger.

Despite being bogged down heavily with patrons, I found all the staff at Galleons to be super friendly. I loved the diversity in the menu from different toasts, bagels, breakfast bowls to a wide variety of vegetarian, non vegetarian and a whole bunch of extras. The most expensive menu item was $15.50 and a lot of options come with half serves for those who don’t eat as much as me; making this place very accommodating and cheap!

 

Venue: The Galleon Cafe

Address: 9 Carlisle St, St Kilda VIC 3182

Phone: (03) 9534 8934

Pod Food sneak peek

An ever so delicate start to our dinner at our Pod Food on Monday night. What stunning colours!

#dinner #instafood #canberrafood #cbr #localcan #restaurantaustralia #podfood #foodporn #canberrablogger #food #foodie

Kong BBQ – Melbourne series

I had heard great things about Kong BBQ and it always intrigued me that the Lucas group’s band of restaurants did so well (Kong BBQ, Chin Chin, Baby Pizza and now also Hawker Hall) but yet were so different. I heard all of them were hard to get into but Kong BBQ was our best bet. We left our name with the waitress and told her we were happy to wait for a table, we were told we would receive a sms when the table was ready and we had 10 minutes to come back and claim it.

I was enjoying a lovely mocktail from the Royal Saxon when we got the sms. I quickly sculled the rest and headed to Kong BBQ before they gave away our table.Kong apple and cinnamon iced tea ($6.00). TimmyC and I found the cinnamon a bit OTT but it was cooling and refreshing on a hot summer’s day.Bao~

Spicy pork belly with pickled cucumber and Kong crazy horse chilli ($7.00 each). Despite the description, this bun filling wasn’t really spicy so don’t let the name stop you from ordering this. I loved how the pork came in two separate parts: one is the tender pork belly with striations of fat and meat while the crackling, which is served separately and delicately laid on top of everything, was super crunchy.Fried chicken with spicy corn and edamame salsa ($7.00). The chicken must have been just fried, placed in the bao and served straight to me because it was so hot and fresh. I really enjoyed this bao and it was possibly my favourite pick (pork was a close second but the chicken had a better filling to bao ratio).Soft shell crab with salted duck egg relish and coriander ($8.50). I was surprised to see the soft shell crab was so small, the tiny legs meant that there was a lot of batter and I found it more oily than ‘meaty’. Not worth the higher price, I would stick with pork or chicken. BBQ soy chicken wings with sesame and spring onion (6 pieces $12.50). I found these overly sweet and as much as I love chicken wings, I think the sticky marinade over powered all the senses.BBQ baby back pork ribs with soy and sesame (half 300g $22.00). I found the same problem with this as I had with the chicken wings, the sticky sweet salty marinade was over powering and you couldn’t taste the pork meat at all, although the meat itself was very tender.Bossam – BBQ Cape Grim black Angus sirloin bulgogi marinated with walnut ssamjang, kimchi and lettuce ($29.00). I have a habit not really reading all the menu, take exhibit A. I read that there was Cape Grim beef, I wanted it so I ordered it. So I was some what surprised when this arrived and the server explained to wrap the beef in the lettuce with the condiments like a sang choy bao. As much as I wanted to like this, I did not like the marinade and the beef was oddly dry and chewy in some parts. The only saving grace of the dish was the walnut ssamjang.Oh Cape Grim beef, why were you not as delicious as I wanted you to be?Fried rice with kimchi, beef brisket and egg ($16.00). I love a good fried rice, there is little ingredients so there is nothing to hide behind. This was amazing. Not a strong kimchi flavour but everything combined: hot rice, kimchi, beef and the runny egg yolk was the perfect combination. I would definitely order this again!BBQ zucchini and spice crusted silken tofu salad with soy vinegar dressing ($17.00). While ordering so much meat, I start to feel guilty that there was little vegetable content so I ordered this from the ‘greens’ section of the menu. It wasn’t what I expected but this surprisingly was one of my favourite dishes of the night. The tofu was ever so delicate covered in a thin crispy batter which paired well with the refreshing BBQed zucchini.Look at that beautiful tofu.This place was packed and clearly popular with the Melburnians and I can see why. We waited happily at a trendy pub down the road for almost 45 minutes for our table and when we came back, it was busier than before it that was possible. I would probably steer clear of meats with heavy marinades and stick to the baos, fried rice and accompanying dishes.

It can get pretty noisy in here with all the people, not a romantic date place.Dishes arrived when they were ready but the spacing between dishes were pretty close together; our table filled up very quickly.Food came out almost instantly from the kitchen so kudos to them for getting the orders out so well despite being ridiculously busy. The waiters were really friendly, attentive, and knew what they were doing which really helped with the efficiency of things, although towards the end they did start packing my plate away while I was still eating the bao above it and we felt a bit rushed to leave.

Venue: Kong BBQ

Address: 599 Church Street,Richmond, Melbourne, VIC

Phone: (03) 9427 1307

Website: www.kongbbq.com.au/

Jimmy Grants – Melbourne series

TimmyC’s trendy cousin asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted to eat while I was in Melbourne. Besides going to Movida, I didn’t really have anything else in mind and I was just going to go along for the ride to places that she was willing to suggest, but when posed with the question, it made me think about what I couldn’t get in Canberra easily and my first thought was: Greek food.

The schedule was tight while we were in Melbourne, so much to eat yet so little time. We devised a game meal plan and figured while I was getting my fill of Melbourne shopping between meals, I would drop into the Jimmy Grants location within the Emporium Melbourne for a late lunch.

It was finally good to sit down after some non-stop shopping in the giant mall that is Emporium Melbourne but there was plenty of people eating in the food court even though it was around 3pm. When we looked at the Jimmy Grants menu, we could not go past the lamb option so we went with Mr Papadopoulos lamb, mustard aioli, chips, onion and parsley ($11.00). We both really enjoyed this and it was exactly what we needed. Delicious tender lamb in a soft pita bread filled with chips. Mustard aioli wouldn’t have been my first pick of sauces but in fact the flavour tied the whole thing together.

I think it was good to have Jimmy Grants in the more relaxed atmosphere of the food court rather than going to the garishly decorated restaurant that we had driven past the night before. We were able to get in and out with exactly what we wanted even with our time constraints. I will definitely come back to eat more off the menu, why oh why can’t one open in Canberra?
All the options I should try next time!
Filled with lots of lamb which was balanced out by the bread, onions and the chips so it didn’t seem so meat heavy.  

Venue: Jimmy Grants

Address: Emporium Melbourne, Level Three, 287 Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne

Phone: (03) 9020 4336

Easey’s – Melbourne series

When TimmyC’s trendy cousin was telling me about a place that we were going for breakfast which was in train carriage on top of a building, I thought to myself ‘only in Melbourne’. Surprisingly, these trains carriages were up on the building before the burger joint Easey’s moved in and they only occupy one of the carriages; I think an Entertainment lawyer is next door.We can spot the joint a mile away!There is some seats outside if you don’t want to dine in the train carriage.BLT streaky bacon, egg, ketchup and double cheese ($6.00).Sausage and egg sanga sausage patty, egg, ketchup and double cheese ($6.00). I love cheese so the double cheese was great for me but I wasn’t too big on the texture of the sausage patty (think sausage meat shaped into a patty), which was somewhat springy. Still, it was only 6 bucks.Just in case you wondered what it looked like under all that cheese.Chicken tenders three southern fried chicken pieces with perinnaise ($5.50). I really enjoyed this over my breakfast burger. The chicken was super crispy but the flavour hit definitely came from the sauce.When we ordered water for the table, we were very grateful that all the glasses came with lots of ice. It can get hot up there, even with the air con on!  I took the stairs going up to see the cool graffiti art but the lift going down. It might be the world’s slowest lift, but it will take you to the 4th floor when your legs cannot.The view from the window.Inside the train carriage is pretty cute.
Neighbouring graffiti, I love the detail in the eye.
Our breakfast bill came to the grand whopping total of $23.50 albeit no drinks but still a bargain! I probably wouldn’t come for breakfast again, but their burgers looked awesome and worth coming back for, especially if they have double cheese on them too.

 

Venue: Easey’s

Address: 48 Easey street, Collingwood, VIC 3066

Phone: OFFICE: (03) 90795942 TAKE AWAY: (03) 90795940

Website: http://easeys.com.au/