Hong Kong Egg Waffles – Baba Sus

My Dearest Reader’s as you know my family lives in Hong Kong and I go back regularly, and every time I go back I will get Hong Kong style egg waffles. It’s actually getting harder to find them in Hong Kong as they’re not being sold on the street anymore. So I was quite excited when Michelle (The Bakeanista)  told me a new Asian inspired cafe Baba Sus was serving these egg waffles.

Baba Sus is one of those hidden cafes that you would not have found if unless you were specifically looking for them. However, it is actually very close to Burwood Train station and is adjacent to an apartment complex. The cafe has great ambience with cute retro chairs and wooden tables.

Matcha Latte $4

I actually visited Baba Sus with a friend who was visiting from Hong Kong, I’m glad she doesn’t mind coming with me because I know she’s has plenty of Egg Waffles back home. Another reason why I wanted to visit was because of their matcha (Japanese Green Tea) latte. It has great colour and also latte art which I have heard is hard to make on a matcha latte. Even though it wasn’t very strong it was made well especially with a teaspoon of sugar to bring out the flavour 🙂

Teddy Bear cappuccino $3.6

My friend ordered a cappuccino and we were so surprised to see a teddy bear face! It’s so cute that we didn’t even want to drink and ruin the latte art! Very impressive ~ I will even come back just for this cute face hehe

Japanese Chicken Caesar $17

We ordered two dishes to share, the first was this Japanese Chicken Caesar with sweet soy chicken (teriyaki) cos lettuce, pancetta crisp, salted ricotta, soft boil egg and gribiche sauce. I am a sucker for yolk pork shots haha so this definitely got me squealing. Although this is a really simple dish, it was the perfect light refreshing lunch dish.

Pork Luck $17

We then ordered a richer dish the “Pork Luck” twice cooked pork belly, apple balsamic, vermicelli and watermelon salon topped with candied walnuts. Another great dish, the pork was very crispy on the outside, it still remained tender inside and not too stringy. I was a little skeptical about the watermelon salad at first, but it complimented the pork very well with the sweetness.

Hong Kong Egg Waffles $14

Now let’s have a look at the Hong Kong egg waffles with Vanilla custard, green tea ice-cream, berry compote and pistachio praline. Another very pretty dish with all the different colours, I also found the egg waffle to be bigger than the ones we have in Hong Kong. The texture of the waffle was softer and more dense, I really enjoyed the addition of the vanilla custard inside. But I found the green tea ice-cream to be a little bland, and perhaps would have been a better match with vanilla or salted caramel ice cream.

Magic $3.6

To end this great brunch I got a Magic (double ristretto) once again latte art was perfect and the house blend had wonderful floral notes. I had such a great time catching up with Kennise and thoroughly enjoyed all the dishes at Baba Sus. Now I just need to find time to drag Mr Bao back again with me!

Allow me to share another photo of the Egg Waffle because it’s so beautiful!

Baba Sus
15-17 Bardolph St
Glen Iris
Victoria 3146
PH: 9939 6141
W: http://babasus.com.au

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Rooftop Trains – Easey’s

I first noticed Easey’s on Easey Street in Collingwood a few weeks ago when I attend an event nearby. I looked up and noticed 3 trains on a rooftop of a 5 storey building, I could see a couple of people inside and some lights. I thought it was one of those party venues, hired out for private functions such as a 21st birthday. But it turns out to be Easey’s which servers burgers, fries and drinks. Pretty cool if you ask me 🙂 It was quite dark so unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo, but next time I go I promise to take a photo and update for you guys to have a look!

The decor is very hip with graffiti all over the walls, and I was quite impressed that they had lifts that went from the ground floor all the way up to the train carriages, even though each floor was quite small. I highly recommend making a booking online or calling them, as it was absolutely full when we arrived at 6:35 for our 7pm booking and still had to wait for the table to clear.

Backfie? lol

Because I was bored I decided to take a ‘backfie’ photo of Garfield’s back since he didn’t want to be in any of my blog photos. Our other friend Dyring was buying a drink so he missed this ‘backfie’ shot 😛

I really liked how the menu was designed, like information for Train lines, the names were quirky and the most interesting was the prices appeared in the form of when the train was going to leave for instance, the “Easey Cheesy” was “8:00” which mean it was $8.

Unlimited refills $4

We waited for a good half hour before we got our table, but staff we’re very friendly and offered us another table downstairs where we could wait and grab a drink. We were really hoping to be seated in one of the three carriages, however, they were all full so we headed down to level two one of their dining rooms. I really liked how the tables also had map of train lines in Melbourne. The soft drinks are $4 with unlimited refills or you can add a meal with chips and soft drink when you order a burger.

Easey Cheesey $8

I was surprised Garfield only wanted the “Easey Cheesey” because it seemed a little small and I wasn’t sure if he was going to be full. But he was determined that it was enough, it is the more traditional burger with beef patty, American cheddar, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, ketchup, mustard and mayo. You can also swap it for a potato cake if you want a vegetarian 🙂 I stole a bite and really enjoyed the pattie but found the bun to be a little cold.

“Too Ease” $10 plus 3 patties

Dyring was starving so he decided to go for the “Too Ease” with 3 extra patties!!! Haha so it became a 5 patty burger. The waitress was so calm when he placed the order, and she told me it is because this nothing compared to some of the 10 pattie with dim sim burgers she has put through!

Kudos to Dyring for being able to put the burger into his mouth without anything falling out haha he actually finished it within 5 minutes! I was totally impressed. He seemed to really enjoy his burger and said next time he can totally do 10 patties with ease so please wait for blog post part 2 when he does the challenge.

Changaz Sanga $10

I think with 5 patties haha we had enough beef so I decided to go for the Changaz Sanga which is a chicken burger with Easey’s fried chicken, bacon, American Cheddar, lettuce and mayo. It may not seem like a very big burger, but I honestly had trouble finishing it all! I think all the flavours in the burger was great just found the fried chicken to be a little bland.

Regular chips $4 with chipotle mayo

These look like regular chips but trust me these were one of the highlights of the night especially with that chipotle mayo!!! Garfield couldn’t stop eating them, I was so close to ordering another serve!

Chicken Bites $4

I know I know we over ordered but I wanted to try everything! These Southern fried chicken bites like nuggets were similar to the one in my burger and once again served with some mayo, we liked that it wasn’t very oily ~

Deep fried chocolate pop tarts $6

I’ve heard of pop tarts and I’m sure I’ve had it before, but I have never had deep fried chocolate ones and I dare say it has CHANGED my life!!! I wasn’t expecting it to be this good before trying 🙂 The crunchy texture on the outside reminded me of a donut but the pop tart centre was soft and oozy like a fondant!

Look at the close up of the pop tart! I simply can’t explain how delightful it was to eat and I honestly can’t wait to come back for more and think I’m going to buy a toaster just so I can eat pop tarts at home haha

Donut with milkshake flavoured custard $2.5

I insisted that we order the donut (I eventually took it home and shared it with Mr Bao haha) even though we were so full. It was a donut with milkshake flavoured custard and surprisingly it is green in colour, it was like a malt (Milk/Horlick) flavoured custard, even though it was slightly cold when I ate it at home. It wasn’t the least oily or greasy! Wish they had more flavours for me to try 😀

We all had a great time at Easey’s and think it’s a great space and has a lovely casual vibe to it. Perfect for a night out with mates, it is also very reasonably priced. Service was a little slow that night, that I can understand as they have only been open a couple of weeks and were already packed, so book online before you go 🙂 And don’t forget to try the deep fried pop tarts!!!

Easey’s
48 Easey St
Collingwood
Victoria 3166
http://easeys.com.au

Nutella and Peanut Butter French Toast – Rustica Sourdough

Rustica Sourdough Cafe

I’m such a stalker, I am always stalking my foodie friends on Instagram to see what new cafe/restaurant they have recently visited and Rustica Sourdough is one that has been coming up on my feed quite frequently. But my ever growing ‘to-go’ list, it simply slipped my mind. Hence, that’s why I jumped up in joy when I received the email from ID Collective to visit Rustica Sourdough cafe.

We were very lucky and found parking just around the corner, and that’s where we realised Rustica Sourdough is actually opposite from Hammer and Tong another popular cafe 🙂 The cafe staff were all very friendly and welcoming, immediately showing us to the table they reserved for us.

Flat White $3.8

Mr Bao has been working quite hard so dragging him out on a Saturday morning (it was closer to midday 11am!) isn’t easy. So a lot of bribing and coffee is required to wake him up. He’s recently changed his preference and opted for a flat white, he found the coffee to be very floral in taste and with a softer body.

Monsieur Truffe Hot Chocolate $5

I would never pass the chance to have a hot chocolate, but when it’s using Monsieur Truffe chocolate I will definitely order it! For those who don’t know Monsieur Truffe is a boutique chocolate maker in Melbourne, and seriously their hot chocolates are one that should not be missed! This one did not disappoint and I found the native flowers in the background to be so pretty too.

Grandmother Ham, heirloom tomatoes, avocado crush, Merideth feta + Sweet basil sourdough $16.50

I already had my eyes and heart set on the french toast, so I tried to choose a healthier dish as my brunch and it was this sweet basil sourdough topped with Grandmother ham, heirloom tomatoes, crush avocado and Merideth feta. As the name of their cafe/bakery suggests their sourdough is absolutely scrumptious, lightly tense with a slight tangy aftertaste. I particularly enjoyed the moist and flavoursome Grandmothers ham which wasn’t too salty. I know I am being greedy but I would’ve perhaps like an egg or two on top of my sourdough, only because I am an egg yolk addict!

Beef brisket burger with Chipotle mayo, herb slaw and pickles on Brioche bun $17.50

Mr Bao wanted something substantial so nothing beats a beef brisket burger with pickles, herb slaw and French fries with Chipotle mayo. The beef brisket was very tender and flavoursome, only needed some more Chipotle mayo inside. Great lunch dish and highly recommend if you like brisket!

Would you like a bite? Hehe

We had a short break before we moved onto dessert and that is the French Toast using brioche topped with fresh peanut butter, Nutella, strawberry jam, ice-cream, chopped hazelnuts and chocolate cookie crumbs. Now please tell me that sounds AMAZING!

Brioche French Toast with peanut butter, strawberry jam, Nutella, Chocolate cookie crumbs and hazelnuts $16.50

I simply can’t get over the fact, how pretty this French toast is and it has all my favourite ingredients! Especially the peanut butter, Nutella and fresh strawberries! Everything just worked so well, and the brioche was so soft and buttery, the texture resembled a little bit like pancakes! I can’t recommend this enough so please do yourself a favour and try! Because it’s so good had to share another photo hehe

Too pretty! Another shot 🙂

We had such a lovely time at Rustica Sourdough, blown away by the service, food and more importantly the bread and pastries. Look look! I already need to plan a revisit and not eat anything but the croissant, cronut, and fig + peanut butter tart!

As we were heading out one of the friendliest staff stopped us and said they had a little goodie bag for us to take home. We were completely not expecting anything and it was definitely not a little bag, there were so many things in the bag – sourdough, pastries and doughnuts!

Profiteroles, Cronut and Chocolate Croissant

All that flakey pastry just staring at me and telling me to ‘Eat it, Eat it’! But I was unfortunately too full, so took a couple of quick snaps and saved it for later.

Chocolate Croissant

The chocolate croissant was super flakey with thick chocolate and crushed nuts nom nom perfect with a cup of coffee.

Lemon Curd and Jam doughnut

The lemon curd doughnut was tangy and a slightly dense texture and the strawberry jam was also delectable.

Profiterole with cream cheese filling and freeze dried raspberry

Last but not least was this profiterole with I’m pretty sure cream cheese, raspberry ganache and freeze dried raspberry. Phew, that was a lot of food to get through in this post haha but the pleasure was all mine!

 

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Mr Bao visited Rustica Sourdough as their guest and ID Collective

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!

Janice Wong High Tea – Aria, Langham Melbourne

Janice Wong High Tea

I think I will describe myself as a High Tea Addict! If there’s a high tea I will be there 😛 That explains why I have been a repeat offender and gone back to the Aria Bar at the Langham Hotel in Melbourne so many times. This time Shelle (Iron Chef Shellie) kindly took me to try out the Janice Wong High tea as part of Melbourne Food and Wine festival. For those who don’t know Janice Wong is the executive pastry chef for the renown dessert bar 2am in Singapore which I was lucky to try a couple of years ago when I visited.

Let’s jump right into the high tea, Shellie and I are both tea drinkers so we got the usuals. Yes that is English Breakfast for me (can’t be classic tea) and Earl Grey for her. I really liked the china they use too, if I remember correctly it is specially designed for Langham by Wedgewood.

We got there quite early on a Tuesday so it didn’t take long for the 3 tier stand to arrive. We started from the top with freshly made sandwiches, and I’m usually quite picky because it’s always a disappointed when they are pre-made and the bread is try. But these sandwiches were perfect, with a good selection of fillings – egg salad, tuna, chicken, cucumber and smoked salmon.

Matcha desserts!

Then moving down were two plates of desserts designed by Janice Wong. And I’m not sure if I can describe to you in words HOW excited I was to see so much GREEN on this plate! Because the green means MATCHA (Japanese Green Tea) and those who know me will know how obsessed I am about it. Let me quickly go through, there was a petite chocolate cake very moriesh reminded me a little of the Opera cake, matcha fanciers and also the warm matcha tart.

I will repeat that it’s a Warm Matcha tart meaning the centre is not set and I could feel the liquid inside wobble as I picked the tart up. The waiter suggested we started with this first as it’s best eaten when still warm. So here I go!

Green liquid gold!

I took one bite and quickly snapped this photo! Were you can see the green liquid gold as I liked to describe it flowing out! It was have to be one of the best matcha tarts and possibly desserts I have had. The tart case was still warm, with great buttery flavour and crumbly texture. But the filling was simply the best, it had such intense matcha flavour and wasn’t bitter at all! I would go back to this high tea just for this tart again.

 

Continuing with the desserts, we moved onto the Singapore inspired choux the green and yellow puffs. The green actually had a kaya custard filling and for anyone who enjoys kaya would have really liked these. The chocolate tart with golden pop rocks was another impressive tart and even the caramel popcorn with freeze dried raspberries were delicious. I definitely had trouble pacing myself and kept popping them into my mouth.

This is a short post, not many photos because I was too busy chatting and catching up with one of my favourite girl Shellie and I really enjoyed everything! Thanks again girl for taking me as my birthday present! Before I forget the tea set also comes with scones (fruit & plain) butter, clotted cream and jam 🙂 The Janice Wong High Tea is still available for $65 per person until the 13th of March (2 days left) so if you’re quick you might be able to score table.