Iranian Pistachio Gelato – Il Melograno

I’m not sure if any Dear Readers have noticed, but I’m starting to blog a little more again 🙂 The last couple of months have been tough with work being so busy, personal commitments and everything else in between! I finally hit a wall and broke down… and even got a little teary at work… but my manager and team has been nothing but supportive! And of course Mr Bao has been doing thing he can to help. After the break down, I cancelled a lot of events and catch up with friends and gave myself more time. And realised that really helped clear my mind and help focus on the things that needed my attention!

 

Anyhow, I’ve bored you enough with my break down, but don’t worry everyone 🙂 I’m feeling so much better now! As a matter of fact, I’m doing so well I managed to get this blog post up, even though I only visited Il Melograno two days ago! Two nights ago a restaurant had their launch party (will be blogging about that soon) and quite a few food bloggers were invited. It was a great event to see and catch up with everyone. Once the meal was finished, it was still quite early not even 9pm, I had my partner in crime Ashely (Im So Hungree) with me, and she actually suggested we should pay Il Melograno a visit. We then lured Allan (Almost Always Ravenous) to come with us!

I have read of Il Melograno opening a while ago and have been on my ‘must-try’ list. We are so spoilt here in Melbourne with so many authentic gelato places to choose from. My impression of Il Melograno is that they focus on making small batches of traditional gelato, flavours were not as modern or creative as say Gelato Messina. However, I could taste the quality and effort placed into producing these gelato.

So apparently Allan said that he owed me money from so long ago that I honestly don’t even remember, but he said gelato was on him 😀 Wasn’t going to argue with him! Thanks Allan hehe

The gelato here is also very reasonable priced $5.8 for a small cup with two flavours and take note! The cups are also edible which I find intriguing and rare to find here! I swear we didn’t plan this…but all our gelato have the same colour scheme hehe

Chocolate & Rosemary and Salted Macadamia $5.8

Ash chose a flavour on their specials board, which is quite interesting Chocolate and Rosemary which surprisingly paired quite well with each other. Neither was overpowering each other. Not something I would choose but the salted macadamia! Such intense flavour!

Coffee and Banana & Walnut $5.8

Not as adventurous 😛 Allan chose the Ricci Method Coffee and also Banana and Walnut. Just like before both flavours were intense and for those who can’t handle caffeine too well, I wouldn’t suggest ordering the coffee as you might have trouble sleeping at night! The Banana and walnut resembled a smoothie with that strong kick of banana through it.

Bacio and Iranian Pistachio

I got two of my favourite flavours, Bacio think the Baci chocolate (hazelnut chocolate) intense with small pieces of hazelnut through it. But what really impressed me was the Iranian pistachio, the wonderfully friendly girl behind the counter explained to us, that proper pistachio gelato should have a very pale if any colour. And the ones that are mint or even fluorescent green has certainly been tinted with food dye. That really intrigued me, as I always thought pistachio equaled green. The flavour was probably not as intense as the other flavours, but still very good and great creamy texture.

I definitely enjoyed Il Melograno, flavours are intense and you get all you asked for 🙂 Pleased that we now have a good gelato store in the suburbs which hopefully will make parking easier and queues shorter. At least for now until more people find about them and then I won’t have a secret gelato spot to visit anymore hehe Maybe I should’ve kept this to myself and not blog about it!

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Lady of Leisure – High Tea Sofitel Melbourne

I think it was last year or year before was when I first heard of this term ‘LOL’ but not the average ‘Laugh Out Loud’, it has another meaning and it is ‘Lady of Leisure’. How cool is that! I’d love to be a lady of leisure, not have to work and just spend my husbands money (no no I’m not getting married anytime soon) hahaha but I would still like to be this type of ‘LOL’.

So even though I’m not quite a full time ‘Lady of Leisure’ yet, I sure know how to be one on the weekend, I ditched Mr Bao and Cupcake for day. First I had brunch with a girlfriend then I organised to have High Tea with another girlfriend Kaylee. We are both High tea fanatics, when we were both in Hong Kong we use to go all the time, I’ve lost count the number of times we’ve gone to high tea.

I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve had High Tea in Melbourne together, so I decided to choose something nicer and came across Sofi’s Lounge at the Sofitel Hotel. I’ve heard mixed reviews about their high tea so wanted to try for myself. They have 4 options during the week the Devonshire and Afternoon Tea option which is the standard 3 tier tower. On the weekends they have the Morning Tea which is the standard in this photo and also the High Tea full buffet which is the one we did. It is $69 per person with a class of complimentary champagne and unlimited tea and I think she said coffee.

Sandwich station

Kaylee and I actually weren’t expecting a full buffet, so I think we were quite impressed with the two large sandwich stations and also the mini quiches and pies. Thanks for being such a great hand model hehe your pink jacket gives the photo some colour 🙂

Scones – Vanilla whipped cream, strawberry jam and honey lemon curd

There are of course scones, plain and fruit ones served with vanilla whipped cream, strawberry jam but what caught our eye was the honey lemon curd. It wasn’t tart and loved that honey flavour through it. Also how cute is the presentation with the scones in a ceramic bowl, it’s like having high tea in a garden outside.

Dessert buffet!

And of course there was the Dessert buffet section with a good selection of mini cakes and tarts, I would say there were a total of at least 12. Which is a really good variety and I could tell that they were freshly made and not pre-made and have been left outside for a long period of time.

More cake!

The sticky date pudding cake on second from the right was definitely my favourite!!! It was moist, sweet and sticky, but I know many will probably say it’s too sweet and rich for them 😛

So this is how we did it, first we got some sandwiches and mini quiche, then we moved onto the scones, pistachio pana cotta and also that lovely strawberry cheesecake with a strawberry jam filling. But we very quickly moved onto the desserts, and there you can see that delicious sticky date cake on the right again!

Crepe and pancake station

In between the two sandwich stands, there is also a crepe and pancake station where a chef is there to reheat some pre-made crepes in caramel source and also some freshly made mini pancakes. The salted caramel sauce was delicious, however, I would’ve preferred freshly made crepes and pouring some sauce on top with some ice-cream. Nom Nom!

Crepe and Mini Pancakes

We didn’t have ice-cream so served it with some whipped cream and more salted caramel sauce ~

Chocolate fountain

Any high tea, buffet or restaurant that has a chocolate fountain with gain brownie points in my books! Now ready for the action shots?!?

First its putting the strawberries on the skewers, I’m glad Kaylee did this and not me, as I’m rather clumsy and would’ve made a mess and not have been too elegant.

Then it’s the KODAK moment! This is actually my favourite shot!

Question time, what do you like dipping into chocolate? I’m actually a huge fan of dipping bananas into chocolate but I guess that would make the chocolate unclean as bananas are quite sticky and turn brown very quickly.

I really enjoyed the High Tea here at Sofi’s Lounge and it definitely exceeded my expectations. Something I really liked was that the whole experience didn’t feel rushed and that we had to be out by a certain time. Even though the High Tea is only served from 2:30pm to 5pm, no tables were asked to leave or that they must finish in the next half hour. I’ve experienced some other high teas in Melbourne and they have very strict timings, which sort of takes the fun of out sitting around hours on end chatting with friends. We did find the tables to be a little small and it was difficult to fit all our plates, tea pots and cutlery. Thankfully, there was space next to the tables and put our bags there. At $69 per person, it may seem pricey, but I actually used the discount from the Entertainment Book which bought it done to $50 per person which I thought was more reasonable.

The Booth Delivered – Menulog + Giveaway

As much as Mr Bao and I like going out and I love any excuse to dress up, put some make up on (sometimes perhaps too much lol) and head out for date night. Some days when I work from home, I literally roll out of bed in my pyjamas and will log onto my computer and stay in my PJ’s all day, with no make up on and put no effort into my look. And on days like these I would usually ask Mr Bao to get us takeaway for dinner. But then there’s another issue, sometimes when I tell Mr Bao what I want he’ll accidentally forget (yes men) or order something else because he thinks I’ll like… But I think I’ve found a new solution for this 🙂 And that is to use an online takeaway website instead like Menulog.

I was given a $30 voucher to try the services provided by Menulog, I’ve used another similar website before and found the interface to be more or less the same. You type in your postcode/suburb and it will generate a list of restaurants who take orders and deliver in your area. I let out a little squeal when I saw ‘The Booth’ on the list, because it is one of my favourite Taiwanese restaurants in Melbourne! As you all know my love for Taiwan!

Placing the order

I was really impressed with the menu online, it practically had everything you could order in the restaurant and at the same price. There is a $5 delivery free which I think is reasonable to cover for petrol and time used to deliver the meal. It’s quite easy to navigate, you choose what you want, it has the price on the right, press the ‘+’ button and it will be automatically be placed in the panel on the right and when you’re done, press ‘Place Your Order.’

Pay for order

The next page is where you enter your delivery details and pay for the order. I really liked the function where you can choose when you want the delivery to be sent, so I can order my dinner at lunch time at work and ask for it to be delivered at a specific time.

We asked the delivery to be sent ‘Now’ and we were immediately sent an SMS confirmation with an estimated delivery time of about 45 minutes. It arrived in about an hour which is slightly longer than we expected, but knowing how busy The Booth gets every night, we will probably order earlier in advance next time.

I admit, I probably over ordered, but this is about the same amount we would order when we go to the restaurant and I really do like their food 🙂

Green Tea with pearls $4.7 and Matcha Milkshake $6

Let’s start with the drinks ~ Mr Bao ordered the Green tea with pearls one of his favourite bottle drinks and I obviously got a Matcha Milkshake. I’ve had this at The Booth before and it can be a little inconsistent at times, sometimes too runny or milky. But they got it spot on this time with good matcha flavour and smooth texture. Who would’ve thought it was possible to get a matcha milkshake delivered to your door step 🙂

Chicken Wrap $9

We shared a Chicken Wrap as a little appetizer, if you’ve haven’t had this type of Taiwanese wrap before, think of it as a Taiwanese pancake very similar texture as a Roti but a little more doughy with a crispy layer on the outside. The filling is slices of chicken with a sweet sauce similar with Hoisen sauce. One of my favourite dishes from The Booth, the pancake was not as crispy as I’d like, but I understand because it was placed in a box and the steam would have created moisture and softened it.

Special chicken rice $9.5

For my main, I got another usual Special Chicken Rice which is deep fried drumlets with rice, tomato sauce, fried egg and veggies. It’s a pretty affordable all this for only $9.5. They used a paper bag for the fried chicken which arrived piping hot and still crispy and it tasted the same as it does in the restaurant.

Three Cup Chicken Rice $9

I’m not sure if Mr Bao has ordered the Three Cup Chicken rice before, but he felt like it that night. For those who don’t know Three Cup Chicken is given the name because it uses equal quantities of sesame oil, Chinese rice wine, and soy sauce. The chicken is then braised in these ingredients to make it into a stew. We both really enjoyed this dish and thought the chicken had great flavour and probably a more ‘takeaway’ safe dish to order, because it doesn’t change the texture or flavour at all. 

Taiwanese Meat Stick Soup $6.5

It was a little chilly that night so Mr Bao and I decided to order the Taiwanese Meat Stick soup as well. Taiwanese soups are generally thicker than the Canton style soups, we’re use to drinking in Hong Kong. This soup was full of Taiwanese meat balls, bamboo sticks, woodear, mushroom and radish ~

Sweet Soya Bean Curd with Pearls $6

For those who have visited Taiwan you would know the Taiwanese love their desserts and The Booth do a great job in replicating these dishes. They offer the snowthies which is like a crushed iced dessert but the ice-cream is shaved so lightly that it has the texture of snow. Being realistic this is very hard to be delivered, but I was impressed with the selection of deserted they offered. I chose the Sweet Soya Bean curd because it’s been a while since I’ve had that and paired it with pearls. It was the perfect way to end our meal and night.

Overall, we enjoyed our experience ordering through Menulog, it was quick, easy and most importantly we got our Taiwanese food fix without having to go out 😉 If you haven’t tried ordering takeaway and having it delivered before, I would really recommend you trying because we all deserve a break once in a while especially working mothers! I have so much respect for you!

Now thanks to Menulog, one lucky Reader is going to have the chance to win a $40 voucher to this service out for themselves 🙂

To enter this giveaway
– Leave a comment and tell me how often you order takeaway and have you tried Taiwanese food before?
– For more entries please ‘Like’ me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter ~ If you’ve already done that please let me now! Thank you!
– Giveaway ends on the 7th June (Sunday) 
– You may reenter daily, one entry per day
– Winners will be chosen by me personally and announced on this blog and notified via email on the 8th June 
– Open only to all Australian residents (Sorry International Readers!)

Congratulations to Ben Travia you have won a $40 coupon to Menulog!

 

I will be emailing you with the voucher and details 🙂 Thanks again for entering in the Giveaway!

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Mr Bao received a $30 voucher from Menulog the remainder of the bill was independently paid for. 

My favourite Matcha Softserve – Via Tokyo, Hong Kong

My Dearest Readers! I’m back 🙂 I arrived back home in Melbourne on Monday morning. And even though it’s great to be home, I’m already starting to miss my family, friends and one of the best matcha soft serve I’ve had! I don’t use these words lightly, but I honestly liked the matcha soft serve so much from Via Tokyo, I visited 3 times in during my short stay.

Via Tokyo in Causeway bay

Via Tokyo is one of Kosei Kamatani many ventures in Melbourne, he’s also the owner and operator of Ramen Jo which is just a stores down from Via Tokyo and believe it or not he also owns a Shisha bar. A lot of my foodie friends in Hong Kong are friends with Kosei so I was lucky enough to meet him in person. He was surprisingly young, friendly and very dedicated to his businesses, I’ve visited both Ramen Jo and Via Tokyo and they’re both brilliant, will have to try the Shisha bar as well next time 🙂

*Warning* Via Tokyo is definitely designed for matchaholics! More than half of their menu is matcha based and the rest is focused on soft serve made from Hokkaido milk and a range of coffees. My first visit was on my 3rd night in town and I dragged my friend Mary to come with me. We arrived at around 8pm and there was already a queue outside. We were told to stand line up and given the menu to look at, I couldn’t decide I just wanted it all!

Matcha Azuki Parfait $45HKD ($6.3AUD)

We were both quite full from dinner so we only ordered two things, the first was the Match Azuki Parfait, the base is a matcha soft serve, Azuki beans puree, mochi (glutinous balls), sliced banana and rice puffs. I didn’t even pay much attention to the toppings and just dived straight into the matcha soft serve, and it was everything I expected but more! It had the smoothest texture but what really impressed me was the strong matcha flavour. That is the main issue I have when I go to most places for matcha soft serve, it always look green in colour but usually the matcha flavour is really light and merely tastes like green vanilla ice-cream. But here at Via Tokyo the matcha flavour is not only strong enough but it doesn’t have that bitter aftertaste 😀

Sample Set $45HKD ($6.3AUD)

We then got the sample set with mochis azuki beans, matcha soft serve and a soft jelly served with a brown sugar syrup. Once again I had my eyes and mind set on the matcha soft serve, which was just as nice but the other two sides was also nice and shouldn’t be ignored especially the mochi which was chewy on the outside but still soft in the middle. That concludes my first visit to Via Tokyo and I can only describe it as ‘impressive’.

Matcha Addicts!

I went home with a huge smile on my face, and kept bugging my other matcha loving friends (Ivan, Minnie, Winnie, Margaret and Ann) and kept telling them we have to go back together as soon as possible. So about a week later we finally found the time to go, conveniently, we had dinner at Ramen Jo first (blog post to come) then walked over to Via Tokyo. Its a small store and we had 5 of us so we wanted for a good 20 minutes before we got a table. And we went nuts hahaha we ordered a whole table of matcha desserts and drinks!

Matcha Affogato $42HKD ($6AUD)

I’ve heard and seen so much about the Matcha Affogato that I was so excited to try. But note that this isn’t on the menu so if you want to try simply order it at the cashier 🙂 It’s basically a serve of matcha soft serve topped with matcha latte. It’s a genius idea! Because we get the best of both worlds.

Moving on we got the Okome Shiratoma Matcha Soft serve, which is similar to the Azuki Parfait with the matcha soft serve base and I found out the Shiratoma are not really mochi but more sweet rice flour dumplings. I particularly liked the rice puffs which gave the soft serve a little crunchiness.

Okome Shiratoma Matcha Soft Serve $45HKD ($6.3AUD)

Nope we still weren’t matcha-ed out and Margaret suggested we get a matcha latte, and I was so surprised to see the latte art. It was a very cute Winnie The Pooh face and also the word ‘Pooh’ with a little heart on the side! Definitely one of the prettiest lattes I’ve seen! Didn’t even want to drink and wreck the face! The matcha flavour wasn’t as strong because we’ve been overdosing in matcha but I know if I drank this first it would’ve had enough matcha flavour ~

Matcha Latte $32HKD ($3.5AUD)

Ok to give you guys a relief from matcha, we also shared a regular Affogato with Hokkaido milk soft serve and a shot of Espresso. I loved this shot! Thanks Ann for being such a great pourer hehe even though it’s not matcha, I still enjoyed this soft serve it has the richest and creamiest texture probably because they use the milk imported from Hokkaido to make all their soft serves.

Affogato $38HKD($5.30AUD)

That’s the second time I visited and I was left thinking about the matcha soft serve again, and I knew I would’ve visited even more often if it was closer to where I lived. So on the last day I was about to leave, we had peking duck with the family for lunch and then we had a couple of hours before I had to fly out … and there was only one place I wanted to visit before I left and that was Via Tokyo for the matcha soft serve yet again 🙂 And I really wanted Win Win (sister) to try because she also likes matcha ice-cream ~

Matcha affogato

I got another Matcha Affogato all for myself and no sharing 🙂 I mean it was my last day so I think I had the right to be selfish hehe still just as good! Win Win got a simple cup with the matcha soft serve and she was also impressed with the strong flavour.

Okome Shiratama Soft Serve $38HKD($5.40AUD)

My nephew Aden isn’t a fan of matcha yet probably because he’s 3 and doesn’t like the slight bitterness which comes with matcha. So got him an Okome Shiratama Soft Serve with ‘milk’ instead and the shiratama again. Aden really liked the soft serve and kept asking for more haha I think soon enough I will be able to train him to like match as much as his Auntie Daisy done 😀

And that there sums up my 3 visits to Via Tokyo and trust me when I tell you, I really really like the matcha soft serve here. One of the best I’ve had and if you’re a matchaholic like me or like really rich and creamy soft serves, I highly recommend you trying Via Tokyo! Now I can’t wait till the next time I get to visit 😀

Via Tokyo
Shop nos. 1A-1B, G/F., Leishun Court,
106-126 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay
銅鑼灣禮頓道106-126號禮信大廈地下1A-1B號舖
PH: +852 2895 1116
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/viatokyocafe

Matcha Delights – Miam Miam + Some News :)

Happy Chinese New Year my Dearest Readers 🙂 If you celebrate I wish you all a prosperous horse year!! Mr Bao and I celebrated Chinese New Years with our friends and I will be sharing that story with you soon ~ But today, I want to share with you a new French-Japanese restaurant that has recently opened in Chadstone Shopping Centre – Miam Miam.

Miam Miam is originally from Tokyo and have now opened throughout Asia including Singapore and have now ventured into Australia and landed in Melbourne 🙂 As soon as I saw photos of of the matcha lattes and desserts, I knew I had to go check it out ASAP! You know how much I love my matcha hehe

If you’re not familiar with Chadstone, Miam Miam is in the area with the other restaurants such as Pappa Rich and close to Aldi and Colonial Markets. I really like the decor of the restaurant with the aluminion chairs and bright lights. They have a no booking policy, so I arrived early to get a table for 6 as I was meeting up with Jana, her husband and some of her friends ~ The waitress was friendly and even though they didn’t have a table for us, they were willing to shuffle the tables around to accommodate us.

Matcha latte with softie $8.8

They had a whole section on the menu dedicated to matcha goodies! You should’ve seen the smile on my face 🙂 A couple of us ordered this matcha latte with matcha soft serve, I must say I was quite impressed! Because it is quite hard to find matcha lattes that have a strong matcha flavour and the soft serve had a nice creamy texture and good matcha flavour. I would have preferred if it had an even stronger matcha flavour, but its already one of the better ones I’ve had in Melbourne.

Matcha smoothie with red bean $7.5

Mr Bao ordered a matcha smoothie with red bean, I couldn’t really taste the red bean but it had the same matcha flavour and had a more icy texture as it was a smoothie. I think I prefer the matcha latte a little more ~

Miam Miam Spaghetti $16.8

The menu is a little small with only a handful of savoury dishes, it was made even more disappointing when a few dishes were sold out at 7pm and we were only left with either the Miam Miam spaghetti or the squid ink risotto. 3 of us got the Miam Miam Spaghetti with tomato, eggplant, bacon and a soft boiled egg. The pasta was cooked to a nice al dente texture and with good flavour, we did find it to be slightly salty.

Squid Ink Risotto $20.8

The rest of the table ordered the Squid Ink Risotto with omelette on top, once again cooked to al dente and with squid pieces through it, flavour was great and the egg top was creamy and soft. For such a small portion I find it a little overpriced for $20.8, the boys were definitely not full and wanted more food ~

Matcha Souffle

Sorry I can’t find the prices for the desserts, of course all the desserts we ordered were MATCHA 😀 Starting with the matcha soufflé, I don’t think I’ve had this before. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a disappointment, it was very wet inside and felt a little uncooked, while matcha flavour wasn’t very strong. I think it would make a great soufflé if a few improvements were made.

Matcha soufflé pancake with soft serve

The other dessert we got was the matcha soufflé pancake with matcha soft serve, coffee jelly, matcha jelly and red bean. The pancake is thicker and dense in the middle but remained soft, once again lacked some matcha flavour but the coffee jelly actually complimented the matcha in general.

That’s the first meal I had at Miam Miam, I enjoyed some of the dishes but would’ve have liked more options no the menu and stronger matcha flavour for some desserts. However, still really glad that they have now opened up and serving so many matcha desserts.

Iced Matcha Tea

Because I am a true matchaholic, I couldn’t hope but go back two days later with my colleague and we had afternoon there. This time I had the iced matcha tea as it was quite hot and I wanted something to quench the thirst. It’s very different from the matcha latte as this iced version has no milk and not sweetened either, it had quite a lot of ice which watered down the matcha.

Matcha parfait with matcha jelly, coffee jelly, red bean and rice crisps

I didn’t get to try the parfait last time so went back to try the matcha parfait with matcha jelly, coffee jelly, red bean and rice crisps. Pretty much the same toppings that was on the matcha soufflé pancake, all matched quite well but I think I would’ve liked some other topping on the parfait to make it a little different. 

Cookie N Cream Parfait

They made a mistake with our order and brought a Cookie N Cream parfait when we ordered another pancake. They were kind enough to offer it to us so yay for us we got to try this as well. Similar to the matcha parfait it had a vanilla soft serve base chocolate rice crisps, sliced banana, chocolate syrup and some crushed Oreo cookies. Not bad but I think I prefer the matcha more hehe maybe I’m bias!

Spiced Apple soufflé pancake

Last but not least was the spiced apple soufflé pancake topped with vanilla soft serve and crushed corn flakes. I found the pancake to be slightly overcooked this time, and would have preferred if the apples were a little softer.

After two visits in 3 days, I definitely like Miam Miam especially their matcha soft serve and all their other matcha drinks and desserts. However, I find the quality of the food to be a little inconsistent and the same elements used again and again. I have also heard from others that they find the menu to be limited and for some dishes it is overpriced. I think Miam Miam needs more time to improve and expand on their menu but other than that it is a great addition to our food scene ~

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Now time to share some exciting news 🙂

My little CUPCAKE!

Mr Bao and I are very happy to announce that we are now proud parents to this gorgeous little silver toy poodle 🙂 And his name is CUPCAKE! I have actually Instagrammed some photos before so those who follow me will know about him hehe we are both so in love with this little puppy! But I do understand not everyone likes dogs so I have created a separate Instagram account for him to share his daily adventures ~ His account is @My_Mr_Cupcake

I totally underestimated the time and effort required to train a puppy, between working full-time, going to puppy school twice a week, toilet training, feeding and playing with Cupcake. It hasn’t left me with a lot of time to do my own things like blogging! But please bear with me Dearest Readers, I promise to get my act together as soon as possible! Thank you so much for being so patient with me!