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. 

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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

Paris in Melbourne – Entrecote

Good morning my Dearest Readers! I wish you all a very belated Happy Easter and hope you’ve all been well. I wish I didn’t have to apologise all the time for not blogging but life has just been getting in the way but this time I hope my excuse is valid and you will forgive me again. And that is because we’ve been moving into our new apartment which is a two bedroom apartment meaning more room for my baking goods and props! Hopefully will be able to share with you more baking recipes 🙂

Anyhow, I have been wanting to blog about this new restaurant for the longest time since the first time I visited for breakfast. But I knew I had to wait until I tried their famous steak and fries before I did! So you see Entrecôte has recently opened up on Domain St, South Yarra. If you remember, I posted about the Le Relais de L’Entrecote in Paris a few years ago. Well Melbourne now has their own version, with a little more variety on their menu they serve breakfast until noon, and then offers steak and fries along with a few more items for lunch and dinner.

Newly Adopted Bro 🙂

The first time I went with my newly adopted Brother (Richard) and friend Q for breakfast. He was acting all shy when I asked if I could take a photo of him and post it on my blog haha So of course I started with a latte as I clearly needed caffeine to wake me up 🙂

Latte $3.8

Bro had a quick look at the menu and decided to get the Croque-Monsieur with hand carved Bill’s ham, three cheeses and thyme béchamel. I most definitely tried a little and thought it was lovely and actually not as rich as I thought it would be.

Croque-Monsieur $16.9

Q had trouble choosing what she wanted so I suggested the Le Petit Dejeuner which is the Parisian continental breakfast. For $19.9 it included many items such as orange juice, tea, coffee or hot chocolate, croissant and baguette with Bonne Maman jams, 63c egg, brioche and bacon ‘crumbs’.

Le Petit-Dejeuner ‘Continental’ $19.9

I think the 62c egg with the bacon crumbs looked wonderful and I can’t wait to come back and try myself. Just the feeling of sitting outside on the patio with a croissant just makes it feel like you have been deported to Paris.

I decided to go for the omelette of fine herbs and Gruyere and soft leaves, it was exactly the way I imaged it to be, soft and fluffy with just the right amount of Gruyere cheese oozing out. If I was to be really picky I would add a little truffle oil to it 😛

Omelette of fine herbs & Gruyere $16.9

Brunch wouldn’t be complete without dessert so I forced Bro to share the French toast with lemon curd ice-cream, lemon verbena poached etches and buttered almonds. This dessert reminded me of bread and butter pudding as it was very soft, it wasn’t very sweet and I thought the poached peaches were actually quite tart.

French toast with lemon curd ice-cream $15.9

We all had a great time having brunch at Entrecôte but I think the happiest would have been Cupcake as it is such a dog friendly cafe with the large patio and the fake grass. He got many pats and compliments too from the waiters and other patrons 🙂

 

A couple weeks later, after rescheduling 3 times, I finally managed to drag Mr Bao out for a date night back at Entrecôte. I wanted to get there between 4-6pm as this is when they had their happy hour, with $2 oysters and $7 champagnes.

House red $8

We started our early dinner with a house red for Mr Bao which was a dry shiraz and complimented the steak to come very well.

Hot Chocolate $4.5

I was feeling a little under the weather, so I stuck with a stomach friendly drink, a hot chocolate which was warm and comforting and exactly what I wanted. We bought Cupcake with us again and he got himself a dog bowl for water 🙂

Freshly shucked Oysters $4ea (happy hour $2ea)

We started off with a dozen of shucked to order with ‘Mignonette’ sauce and lemon, I’m not quite sure where the oysters are from, but they were quite salty and was great with a few drops of lemon juice. Mr Bao was so happy, he ordered another dozen and immediately devoured them.

French onion Gougere $5ea ($3ea)

Ash (Im So Hungree) recommended the French Onion Gougere which is essentially a profiterole with French onion and cheese filling. The choux pastry was made very well and the filling was so wonderfully cheesy and paired perfectly with a dry red.

Steak Frites with soft leaves $39.9

The reason why I come back to Entrecôte and visit again before I could do a blog post is because I simply HAD to try the Steak Frites with soft leaves and see how it compares with Paris. The steak is from Hopkins River and we ordered it to be medium rare, just looking at the dish it looks very similar to Le Relais de L’Entrecote.

I found the béarnaise sauce to look more limey and didn’t taste as strong. The shoe string fries comes with complimentary refills so forget about calories and eat till your hearts content.

 

The steak itself was cooked to medium rare, keeping a pink centre and even though it was a very big piece with the creamy sauce and the fries I found it to be a good serving. Compared to the Le Relais de L’Entrecote in Paris, I found the steak itself to be of better quality, thanks to our great Aussie beef 😀

Soft leaves with radish, walnut, Dijon vinaigrette

It also comes with unlimited soft leaves with radish, walnut and Dijon vinaigrette, admittedly not as exciting as the steak and frites, but the tangy Djion vinaigrette does make it a little more interesting.

Entrecôte cheese burger with frites $22.9

I wanted to try something different and since we were siting out on the patio we had more options, I ordered the Entrecôte cheese burger with frites. A black angus beef patty with melted cheese and the same Paris bearnaise sauce on the steak. Even though I found the patty to be slightly under seasoned the cheese and sauce definitely made up for it.

Been a while since I’ve posted a photo of myself haha and Mr Bao insists this is a good photo of me just before I was going to shove the burger into my mouth 😛

Lemon Tart, creme fraiche $16.9

I honestly wanted to try all the desserts – creme brûlée, apple tart tat in, mille-feuille and profiteroles. But we settled on the Lemon Tart because I had cravings and once again Ash recommended it and I trust her judgement. It was one of the best lemon tarts I have had in a very long time, with a sweet shortcrust pastry and that luscious lemon curd filling that had the right about of tartness and paired with creme fraiche. Personally I think I would have preferred vanilla ice-cream but both are fine by me.

No doubt Entrecôte has become a new favourite of Mr Bao and I with its great dishes, friendly staff and most importantly for us dog friendly. I think it’s also a great brunch spot for a brunch of girls to try to be Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl…ok sorry I got carried away haha I’ve been rewatching the series. Anyhow, we will be revisiting for sure! Have a great weekend!

New Friend Leaving – Lucy Liu

Mr Bao laughed and rolled his eyes, when I told him, “I’m going to start my blog post with the following statement – I am a social butterfly”. I’m not sure what’s so funny about this statement, because it’s very true! I love socialising, meeting new people, making new friends:) Fellow Wong (that’s our nickname for each other since we have the same surname haha)  is one of these new friends I have made, we met through another friend last year and have kept in touch since then. If it wasn’t because of a busy work/life schedule and distance of where we live, I’m sure we would met up more. 

Anyhow, the sad news is Fellow Wong is relocating again, he is originally from Sydney, this time he is moving to Singapore. It’s a great move for his career and he’s definitely someone who likes a new challenge so we’re very happy for him, however, at the same time it’s sad to see a new friend leave. There’s a few more weeks before he moves, but we wanted to catch up a few more times. That’s how we ended up having lunch at Lucy Liu Kitchen and Bar, which is the new venture from Michael Lambie (The Smith, Circa), Smith Borg and Zac Cibbes. 

I had a look at the menu before booking, and it gave me the impression of so modern Asian with Thai and Korean fusion. It seems to be on the rise with the number of modern Asian restaurants in Melbourne. The boys both shared a Kirin Apple cider, I didn’t know that Kirin produced ciders because I’ve always associated them with beer hehe I had a sip and found it to be quite crisp, but not too dry. 

Koh Tao Cooler – Apple, honey, apple juice, crushed ice top with soda $8

I got a mocktail the Koh Tao Cooler with Apple, honey, apple juice, crushed ice and topped with soda. Really enjoyed this refreshing drink and paired quite well with our dishes with such rich flavours.

Oysters with red nam jim sauce $4 each

As a little starter we tried a freshly shucked oyster with red nam jim sauce. Haven’t had it with nam jim sauce before, found the slightly sourness helped bring out some of the sweetness from the oyster.

Barramundi & Scampi Dumplings with chilli, ginger and spring onions $14

We then shared these Barramundi and scampi dumpling with chilli, ginger and spring onions. I’m usually sceptical of fish dumplings as they’re often quite fishy, but I was very impressed with these dumpling. They had a decent amount of filling and was actually quite tasty! Especially with the chilli sauce!

Crispy Pork Bun $8

We then ordered a couple of buns to share, this is the Crispy Pork Bun with spicy kimchi and kewpie mayo. It’s so nice to see that Kewpie mayo is used more widely now and not only available in Japanese groceries. I’m addicted to it haha 🙂 The bun itself was soft and fluffy, however, I found the crackly wasn’t as crispy as we would have liked and found the pork to be slightly bland.

BBQ Lap Cheong Hot Dog $8

This was my favourite! BBQ Lap Cheong ‘Hot Dog’ in a toasted milk bun with wombok coleslaw. A yum cha you can find Lap Cheong buns but they’re definitely not as indulgent as this one with that wombok coleslaw which I’m pretty sure has egg and more kewpie mayo! I really enjoyed this and would recommend you trying it!

Rare Breed Sticky Pork Belly $20

This reminds me very much like that signature pork dish they have at Taxi Kitchen . I did find $20 for only 2 pieces of pork belly to be on the dearer side. It was also served a young coconut salad and red chilli. Unfortunately, we were a little underwhelmed as the pork was a little tough and once again under seasoned and not very sticky.

Korean Fried Chicken Ribs $14

But then I was blown away again by the Korean Fried Chicken Ribs with kewpie mayo 🙂 The ribs were not greasy with the flesh still tender, it was slightly spicy probably because of the marinate, and dipped into Kewpie mayo perfect!

Korean Style Crispy Pork Hock $38

Just in case I forgot to mention, the menu here is designed for sharing as most places are now! We’ve had a fair amount of food, so we decided to only get one dish from the ‘Larger’ section of the menu. We decided on the Korean Style Crispy Pork Hock with apple kimchi salad, pancakes and hoisin sauce.

I would describe this dish like it a peking duck, but instead you replace the duck with pork! It’s quite simple, you hack into the pork hock, rip pieces off it, wrap it into the pancakes add a bit of the salad. Here comes some action shots for you!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Oh yeah last step is to wrap it and put into your mouth!!! We all really enjoyed this, the pork hock was tender with great smokey flavour, with a drizzle of hoisin sauce to give it some sweetness and the green apple for crunch! It’s also a very generous serving that could easily feed 3 to 4 people! I also liked the super thin paper like pancakes which means it’s less filling and you can eat more of it 🙂

Chocolate Dulce De Leche with blood orange foam $15

If I had it my way, I would’ve forced the boys to have 3 desserts! But they were too stuffed, so I settled for only 2! Starting with the Chocolate Dulce De Leche with blood orange foam. I’m a little perplexed because I really liked the bottom layer with the dulce de leche, how sweet and rich it was. But then I’m really not a fan of blood orange, while it was the opposite for the boys they liked the foam more because it wasn’t as sweet 😛

Crispy Banana Fritters $15

To make it easier for sharing, we got the Crispy Banana Fritters with coconut ice-cream and syrup. The batter in which the banana was coated in was thicker than I expected and not as crispy. Felt like a modern take and wasn’t as oily as the traditional one. Coconut ice-cream was creamy and nice with a sprinkle of toasted shredded coconut.

It was such a great catch up with Fellow Wong and as a side story, I’ve already introduced him to my good friend Ms S who will take care of him when he lands in Singapore. See I’m such a good friend haha I go to great lengths to take care of them. Back to Lucy Liu, I think it had some hits, but also some misses. I think some dishes they executed so well, however, lacked some flavour in some others. However, if you’re looking for a new place to have lunch or dinner with friends who take bookings, I think Lucy Liu is a good option. Plus the name is quirky 😛

That Beef Brisket – Meatmaiden

My Dear Readers, do you remember the short lived restaurant Little Hunter? It had some great success but after only what felt like 6 months, it closed its doors due to financial issues. This great space was then forgotten for a while but it has been brought to life again! It has been taken over by the same owners as Meatmother in Richmond and now transformed into Meatmaiden.

Meatmaiden is on the basement of a commercial building, and since it’s Little Hunter days, it has changed a little with more seats at the bar, not as dark and I love those dark grungy photos of girls holding a knife haha that’s the evil side of me when I don’t get what I want 😛

To celebrate the opening of the restaurant, Meatmaiden decided to organise a bloggers/media night, which I thought was very generous as all guests were also asked to bring a plus one. Even though it was a large event, we were all placed our own tables and I had Shellie (Iron Chef Shellie), Michelle (The Bakeanista), Katey (TinkPR) and Mr Bao on our table, so it was still intimate.

Negroni

So what if it was a Tuesday night, it was going to be an awesome night filled with food and catching up with my fellow blogger friends so I was determined to drink! Plus Mr Bao was driving haha so lets start with a Negroni! Definitely not for the light drinkers it was quite strong indeed!

Beef Jerky, Pickled Heirloom vegetables and Kipfler chips

Ok now we’ve got drinks covered let’s move onto the starters, here we have beef jerky, pickled heirloom vegetables with chilli and goats cheese and Kipfler chips. The beef jerky with their homemade BBQ sauce was delicious! Then we also had the insider joke that Shellie pickled her stomach that night with all the pickled veggies she ate haha they were a great to prepare us for all the food that was coming!

Oysters with Smoked Fennel Dressing

Next was the freshly shucked oysters with smoked fennel dressing, I’m pretty sure these Oysters were from Tasmania and had a creamier texture. I haven’t had smoked fennel dressing with oysters before and found it very refreshing.

Southern fried chicken ribs with tequila mayo

I think I forgot to mention that Meatmaiden focuses on American BBQ so it also makes sense that they would have Southern fried chicken and to make things more interesting it was served with tequila mayonnaise. I couldn’t really taste the alcohol but it had all the rich and creaminess expected from mayo and the chicken ribs had such great flavours! I think more places should do Chicken ribs instead of wings, it’s easier to eat and more meat!

Lobster Mac and Cheese

Some of the bloggers have visited on another event before, and they haven’t topped telling me about the Lobster Mac and Cheese, so I was very excited to see it on the menu. We all agreed that we could all have one serve each, it was very rich but was actually quite light on the cheese. The lobster just made it even more indulgent.

20-hour Rangers Valley Wagyu Brisket with Native Tassie Pepper Berry Rub

Now this is the BEEF BRISKET I am going nuts about, it’s Wagyu brisket from Rangers Valley and takes 20 hours to make paired with that aromatic Native Tassie Pepper Berry Rub. It is the most tender piece of beef brisket I’ve ever had! I’m going to be pushy and recommend you go and try for yourself 🙂

O’Connor Pasture-fed Flat Iron Steak

This flat iron steak from O-Connor was another winning dish that night, it had such intense buttery beef flavour. It had such good flavours no condiments or sauces were really required.

Lamb ribs

Last savoury dish we tried was the Lamb ribs, I don’t eat lamb so I skipped and gave my piece to Mr Bao. He commented that it was so succulent with great smokey flavours, we also got a variety of nods from the other people on our tables ~

Sundae with Peanut Brittle

All good meals must end with dessert! This was the Ice-cream sundae with chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, chocolate sauce and peanut brittle. A simple American classic dessert, just needed more chocolate sauce hehe

Chocolate Bar with Raspberry Sorbet

Something a little fancier was the chocolate bar with raspberry sorbet, its like a chocolate fondant with a soft gooey centre. I found the raspberry sorbet a little too tart for my liking and would’ve proffered something like butterscotch ice-cream but I’m sure you all know the way I like my desserts ~

I enjoyed the meal here at Meatmaiden and found it more refined than Meatmother but still retaining that casual bar type atmosphere. Their prices are also reasonable with a $49 meal with so much food my friend had doggy bags to take home with her last time she went with her hubby. Definitely recommend Meatmaiden if you’d like a place to visit with friends and trust me you must order the beef brisket and lobster mac and cheese!

Mr Bao and Daisy@Nevertoosweet dined here as guests of Meatmaiden and TinkPr