Thoughtful Gifts – LVLY.com

Hello My Dearest Reader’s apologies for the short hiatus! I’ve got so much to update you, I have recently started a new job, so that has kept my very busy! But I will provide you a full update in my next post 🙂 Today I have a super fun post to share with you! I was recently introduced to Lvly.com an online service which delivers ‘small, thoughtful gifts delivered same day Melbourne’.

The concept is super easy, you jump online choose the gift you would like to send to a loved one, customise the gift by adding additional items, order before 1pm and same day delivery is guaranteed. Perfect as a last minute gift if you have accidentally forgotten someone’s birthday or just want to surprise a special person at work ~

Lvly Hug-a-mug set from $38

The LVLY team were very nice and sent me their new LVLY Hug-amug set which includes a 250g Mork Junior Dark (50% cacao) with a twin pack of fluffy marshmallows from Sweetness The Patisserie. I can’t think of a better gift right now especially since it’s been so cold! Yesterday was the coldest morning Melbourne has experienced for over 18 years! So nothing beats a hot chocolate 😀

Imagine receiving this at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon on hump day, when you just want the day to be over. You can make yourself a piping hot chocolate at your desk and pop a marshmallow inside and watch it melt slightly.

Let me show you! The marshmallows are so squishy, soft and fluffy! When I order a Lvly hug-a-mug set for someone I will definitely order more marshmallows because 2 is simply not enough.

How good does this hot chocolate look? Sorry guys I’m not sharing haha I wouldn’t even let Mr Bao have a sip so please make your own hehe just kidding!

I’ve really enjoyed my gift from Lvly and already have my eyes set on their LVLY Posy subscription where you receive one bunch of posy a week for four weeks. And yes they are for myself haha who said you can’t order gifts for yourself! Ok ok I might get Mr Bao a LVLY Little sucker a little concrete pot plant and I might add a chocolate fix to it just because I’m so nice.

Thanks again LVLY.com for the gift and for more information please check out their website.

This is a sponsored by LVLY.com all opinions are honest and true. 

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Rosemary’s Curry Chicken – ASKO Cooktop

Today’s recipe is sponsored by ASKO cooktops as they believe “great meals start at the cooktop”, which I completely agree. I have always been a fan of gas cooktops as I like seeing the flame and being Chinese we always talk about the ‘breathe of wok’ or what we call ‘wok hei’. Eventually when we move out of our rental and purchase our own apartment, I would like an ASKO gas cook top as it has the wok burner on the left and will not get in the way of the other burners.

 I am so honoured to share with you today Rosemary’s curry chicken recipe, she is my friend Julie’s ex Mother-in-law and I honestly believe grandmother’s recipes are always the best. Rosemary originates from South Africa and she has been making this recipe for decades. It’s not quite as spicy as some Indian curries but has enough heat and the coconut cream gives so much fragrance.

Rosemary’s Curry Chicken

It can be serve it with rice or roti bread but remember to use up all that delicious curry sauce. Perfect dinner dish for your family on a cold wintery night 🙂 Mr Bao and I enjoyed it so much we wished there was more and we can’t wait to remake this! Thank you again Rosemary and Julie for sharing this recipe with me and my Readers!

Recipe – Rosemary’s Curry Chicken
Yield – Serves approximately 4 people

Ingredients
500g chicken thighs cut into chunks
3 tbs olive oil
1 onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
2 chillies chopped
3 spring onion chopped
1 tbs Curry power (Clive of India)
1 can Coconut Cream
3-4 medium size potatoes
1/2 tsp salt

Notes
– You can used a can of diced tomato instead of coconut cream if you prefer a red based curry
– You can substitute potatoes for another vegetables such as lima or broad beans

Method
1) Heat olive oil in large pan over medium heat, add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic, chillies and spring onion and cook for a few minutes before moving ingredients to one side of the pan and let the oil move to the other side.
2) Add curry powder to oil and mix until it forms a paste, mix with other ingredients and cook for approximately 3 minutes until fragrant move to one side of the pan.

3) Turn heat to high and add chicken, cook and seal until lightly brown. Turn heat to low and mix all ingredients together.  Add one can of coconut cream and potatoes and cook with lid on for 30-45minutes until potatoes are cooked. Season with salt and serve with rice or roti bread.

 

This is a sponsored post by ASKO Australia. 

12 Beers on Tap – Beer Deluxe Hawthorn

My Dearest Readers, are you a beer drinker? I wouldn’t say it’s my drink of choice, but I do enjoy the occasional Corona and I’m starting to enjoy some Lagers. I was recently invited to visit Beer Deluxe in Hawthorn as the name suggests they specialise in beers and have 12 or even more on tap! It was very interesting to learn about how the beer is made underneath in restaurant.

Heres a list of their beer that night we visited 🙂 The tasting paddle seems like a great idea for those who want to try different kinds of beers without having to get too drunk too quickly hehe. I decided to bring Garfield with me, as Mr Bao has been very busy at work and I knew he would appreciate it more as he is definitely a beer drinker.

Beer Deluxe was very kind and reserved a table for me ~ they have a great space with high tables and comfy chair, I can see my colleagues enjoying a beer here on a Friday night.

Brooklyn Lager $9.5

Garfield started with a Brooklyn Lager from from the US, his comment it was quite light in flavour and resembled more like an ale instead. We liked how it came with a glass with the logo printed on it.

Lick Pier Ginger Beer $9.5

I know this may sound a little ignorant, however, I always like ginger beer was only the name and it had alcohol. But I guess I’m wrong because they had two ginger beer options on the menu and both with 4% alcohol. The Lick Pier ginger beer wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be, but it still had some heat to it.

Spicy Chicken wings, hot sauce, celery sticks and ranch $15

As you would expect for a restaurant which specialises in beer, they offered a great range of bar snacks. We ordered a couple to share, this is the spicy chicken wings with Sriracha hot sauce, celery sticks and ranch. It’s such a large serving, Garfield and I struggled to finish them after having 4 wings each in one go!

I think chicken wings are a great beer snack because their fun to eat with your fingers and the Sriracha sauce actually complimented the beer very well. Probably because it was so spicy and the beer helped to mellow it.

Tempura battered Calamari with Aioli $13

For those who remember Garfield from previous posts, he is the one who only likes 3 things – burgers, pad see ew and calamari! So there was no question that we would order the tempura battered calamari with aioli. We were both impressed at how light the batter was and the calamari stayed so tender and soft inside.

Cheeseburger $13

Another mush try dish was a burger, they have a decent size burger menu. We decided to choose a traditional and simple cheese burger with a beef pattie, melted cheese, lettuce, mayo and deluxe sauce. I found the pattie to be a little bland in flavour, but that was compensated by the melted cheese and the soft warm brioche bun.

Lager battered flathead tails and tartare sauce $22

Another dish that I normally order when I am at a pub is fish and chips, this was made using Lager batter and served with homemade tartare sauce. I nearly forgot how much food we ordered! Garfield made a comment that he never leaves after having dinner with me hungry haha 😛 I really enjoyed this fish and chips, the fish was still moist and the tartare sauce was delicious.

Housemade chocolate and salted caramel tart $12

I was pleased to see that they had two dessert options as this is not often seen at a pub ~ They had this house made chocolate and salted caramel tart. I wasn’t sure what the green candies was on top of the tart and it turns out to be mint flavoured candy which made this more like a chocolate and mint tart. Rather refreshing and rich at the same time 🙂

Garfield and I had a great time and he’s already planning to bring his colleagues here for lunch or dinner sometime as he really likes the ambience and vibe. The staff was very attentive and shared with me how they make beer in a room underneath the restaurant and how the beer becomes ‘on top’ Very interesting and I would love the chance to visit their beer making room next time I visit!

Beer Deluxe – Hawthorn 
329 Burwood Road
Hawthorn
Melbourne
PH: 9818 3944
W: http://www.beerdeluxe.com.au/hawthorn

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Garfield dined at Beer Deluxe Hawthorn as their guests and ID Collective. 

Queen’s Birthday Weekend – Legacy, Camberwell

I hope all my Dear Reader’s in Melbourne have enjoyed the Queen’s Birthday long weekend 🙂 Mr Bao and I had a lovely weekend catching up with friends and spending time with our little puppy. As a weekend ritual we always go out for brunch and this time we ended up going to Legacy in Camberwell nice and close to home. They are owned and run by the same owners as Collective Espresso and Mob Espresso.

It was a very cold morning probably 13 or so degrees outside, but for Cupcake we still decided to sit outside and wear 4 layers of clothing plus a jacket and scarf. Now this is what I call love haha! The staff were wonderfully friendly and attentive.

My Two Boys

Chilli Mocha $4.6

Because it was so cold, I ordered something a little different, this is the chilli mocha. I’ve never heard of this combination before, it’s usually chocolate and chilli which I love and now with the addition of coffee. It was surprisingly nice and very comforting with the hint of heat from the chilli. Great combination and I hope more places will start offering this 🙂

Latte $3.9

Mr Bao ordered a latte which is a single origin (Sorry I forgot the country it’s from!) but it did had floral notes and quite light tasting. The latte art is also beautiful here!

Full House $23

We definitely eat more when it’s cold! Mr Bao needed a big and hearty brunch, he ordered the Full House with Kaiser bacon, field mushrooms, spinach, cherry vine tomatoes, potato rosti, sourdough toast and poached eggs.

You know I can’t resist a good yolk porn shot 😛 So here it is! We enjoyed all the ingredients and everything was cooked so well, our favourite was definitely the potato rosti that was made from grated potato. It was fried so the outside was so crispy but inside still stayed soft. You can’t see the Kasier bacon in this photo but it had great flavour without being too salty.

Legacy Buttermilk fried chicken $19

Another thing I can’t resist is fried chicken especially if it’s buttermilk because it means the chicken stays tender and moist. The fried chicken was placed in a brioche bun with charred corn slaw, mustard and sriracha mayo. Honestly, can’t fault this burger! The fried chicken was absolutely divine!

I forgot to share with you the amazing dessert/pastry cabinet I was staring at from the moment we got to the cafe. I’ve heard from Ash (Im So Hungree) that they make their own donuts and that I must try some! I am kicking myself for not asking the waiter to put some aside for me, as I missed out on the Salted caramel and the white chocolate and Reeses Peanut Butter cup one! Guess that just gives me another excuse to come back ~

Nutella Donut $5

Instead I got the filled donut with Nutella filled up to the top and covered in icing sugar, unlike some of the other donut outlets in Melbourne now. These are still fried donuts but definitely not oily with a slightly dense texture.

 

Can anyone resist a Nutella donut?! Seriously 🙂 I know I can’t hehe

Raspberry Poppyseed Donut $5

Surprisingly Mr Bao agreed to get another donut and he chose the Raspberry poppyseed which had a lovely deep rose colour. Raspberry flavours were strong with hints of poppy seed, a nice combination of flavours and I usually see poppyseed with orange ~

Another great cafe by the guys from MOB and Collective Espresso. The interior is a little more modern than the other two cafes, but food is definitely on par. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and I’m starting to get worried that it will soon be too popular for us to get a table on the weekends! 🙂 Note to self MUST TRY White chocolate Reeses Donut!

Legacy Camberwell
347 Camberwell Road
Camberwell
Melbourne
PH: 9041 1796
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Legacycamberwell

Soupy Dumplings – New Shanghai

I love shopping so it’s very exciting when the Emporium opened up in Melbourne last year. It is a new shopping centre which has taken over the old Myer building connected to Melbourne Central. They have a great variety of stores but more importantly they have a very impressive food court with – Jimmy Grants, I Love Pho Express, Rice Work Shop and many more. But more importantly they have New Shanghai a new restaurant serving traditional Shanghainese dishes.

My dad’s family is from Shanghai so I have grown up eating these dishes. I have visited New Shanghai a couple of times and they were very kind to invite me back again for a meal 🙂 So Mr Bao and I had a little date where we visited the Dog Lovers Show first to get some goodies for Cupcake before heading over to New Shanghai.

Xiao Long Bao – Crab & Pork $11

We arrived at a slightly odd time 4pm a little too late for lunch and too early for dinner, but that doesn’t matter because it meant the restaurant wasn’t as busy and we could take our time enjoying our meal. Don’t be too alarmed at the speed the food comes out here at New Shanghai, it feels like you have only just ordered and within a minute the food appears in front of you. I actually find it quite impressive as the dumplings are always piping hot when it arrives. We started with these Xiao Long Bao (AKA Soupy Dumplings) with a crab and pork meat filling.

I actually had a lot of fun shooting these little dumplings, they’re very cute! They also taste fantastic with a very soupy filling so I suggest eating with a soup so you don’t lose all that liquid goodness. Everyone has different preference, but I like my Xiao Long Bao with a very thin skin and more soup inside. And dipped in a little bit of vinegar and ginger perfect way to eat them!

Ok I promise this is the last XLB picture 😛 I’ve tried both the plain pork XLB before and I think I prefer them more than the one with crab meat. As I found the flavour of the crab a little overpowering and there is slightly less soup. While Mr Bao preferred the ones with crab meat so I guess each to their own ~

Pork wonton with peanut butter, red chilli oil & spice $11.5

So the XLB were good, but the pork wontons blew me away! These wontons had the silkiest and soften skin (wrappers) served with peanut butter sauce, red chilli oil and some spice. It had so much flavour and just enough chilli to give it a little kick, however, not overpower the rest of the ingredients. Two thumbs up from us and highly recommend it!

Sweet and sour pork in dark vinegar sauce $5.8

Apart from dumplings we also shared some dishes, this is the sweet and sour pork in dark vinegar sauce. So think sweet, sticky and tender pork but it’s not the Hong Kong style roast pork, it is more braised in a thick sauce. Great snack to have on its own or with some rice.

Pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce $17.5

There’s a lot of pork in Shanghainese dishes ~ We also ordered the highly recommended pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce. It was similar to the previous sweet and sour pork, while this was more salty and the meat was very tender. Mr Bao also liked the fatty bits on the pork belly as it wasn’t too oily. Another great dish to share amongst a couple of friends.

Deep fried crispy skin chicken with noodles $13.8

Thought it was a good idea to order something with carbs to keep Mr Bao stomach full and even happier. We chose the deep fried crispy skin chicken with noodles and special garlic and chilli sauce. The chicken was close to being boneless which is a bonus for us because we are so lazy haha the chicken skin was so thin and crispy. The sauce also complimented the chicken and noodles very well.

Steamed pumpkin and stick rice cake with red bean paste $9.5

I could feel my jeans tightening up but I simply couldn’t leave before I got some dessert. As a matter of fact, it’s very nice to see so many dessert options at a Chinese restaurant and some more unique dishes and not just mango jelly. This is the steamed pumpkin stick rice cake with a red bean paste filling, because the dumpling is made from rice dumpling and steamed, it had a very sticky and glutinous texture. I think it’s one you either like or not 😛 I love this texture, but I think it would’ve been even better if it was a taro paste filling as I like that more than red bean paste.

Baked pastry with red bean paste $9.5

Last but not least was this baked pastry with a red bean paste filing, the pastry was very flakey. Again I’m not the largest fan of red bean paste so even though it was nice and sweet, I would’ve preferred maybe a custard or pumping filling instead.

We are being regulars at New Shanghai, as we love going shopping and then stopping by for a quick bite. Service is always quick but not rushed. Most importantly the soupy dumplings (XLB) and pork wontons are made so well! It is also very reasonably priced, Mr Bao and I properly spend on average $20 to $25 each and we are stuffed 🙂 So if you haven’t visited New Shanghai, I recommend you going after doing some retail therapy!

New Shanghai
Level Three (Food Court)
Emporium Melbourne
287 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne 3000
PH: 9994 9386
W: http://www.newshanghai.com.au

 

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Mr Bao visited as guests of New Shanghai and ID Collective