Oh I love Pork Ribs

This week's weekend lunch place is The Meat & Wine Co.  My plan was to not eat too much main meal, and go for the grand dessert.

I wasn't going to get an entree at first, but then, I always love a good Beef Carpaccio, so, couldn't resist.   The beef was very tender and nice, but both me and mum thinks that perhaps that should be a bit more sauce and lemon juice.

For main, we had the full rack Pork Ribs, one of mum's favourite.  I wasn't going to eat much, since I was preparing for dessert, and I always kind of thought it's too much effort to eat ribs.  Not a lot of meat, but you get your hands all dirty.  But since I wasn't going to order a main for myself, I tried a bit. After all, I can't really just have dessert.  BUT!  I now realise how wrong I had been.  IT IS FANTASTIC!  I absolutely fell in love with the Pork Ribs!  Ah, how stupid have I been all these years... And as always, the chips are the best.

Here comes the "main" of the meal, the dessert.  The Grand Finale, which consists of a vanilla creme brûlée, a chocolate and pistachio fondante with vanilla ice-cream, a caramel and chocolate tart, and a white chocolate panna cotta.  Grand, isn't it?

As a side note, I also order a mocktail, called Evergreen.  I didn't go for a cocktail, since I had to drive.

Taste kind of refreshing, but a bit sweet, and definitely too much ice.......

La Petite Creperie

Last week on Postcards, they showed us the french crepe stand on Swanston Street.  Today, I went to check it out.

I ordered a Salted Caramel and Almond crepe.  The crepe was very thin, but the salted caramel can probably do with a bit more salt, but otherwise it's not bad.  May go and try something else next time.

Kimchi Hut

Wednesday I went with friends to see Brave, and before the movie, we went to our usual place in Glen Waverley for dinner - Kimchi Hut.

Since we didn't have much time, all five of us ordered rice stone pot.  I went on the safe side, ordered the Beef rice stone pot.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo before I mix up the rice, so it looks a bit messy.....

P.S. This was what I had last time when we went to see Dark Shadows - Spicy prawn rice stone pot.

Korean BBQ

In search for a new Korean BBQ place, yesterday me and mum went to White Tomato on Bourke Street to see how it is.

The first thing that I noticed is the unique look of the vacuum thing.

These are the kimchi, salad and sauces that came with the order.

We ordered a serve of marinated beef, and chilli pork belly.

This is how it looks when it's on the BBQ.  The vacuum is placed so low that it is quite hard to put the meat on.  The fire wasn't too hot, so it didn't burn the meat too quick, so that was good.

We also ordered the Mixed Seafood Pancake, but forgot to take a photo before we started eating...too hungry.

Overall, not too bad, but not too good as well.  We probably need to continue with our search for a good Korean BBQ restaurant.

Lunch @ BBQ House

Took mum to Richmond to have lunch today.  My favourite place in Richmond - BBQ House.

This is the Golden Chicken, which is salty duck egg with chicken.  Delicious!

This is the Chow Kwai Tieu.  Since there was only two of us, we only order these two dishes.

Lunch @ Madame Sousou

Second time to Madame Sousou.  Lovely place.

This is the lunch menu.  It's actually quite a good deal to have the two course or the three course meal.

To start the meal, of course there was the complimentary bread and butter.  I really do love that butter.

For entree, I had the Soupe de L'Oignon, which is the French onion soup with gruyere crouton.  Compared to what I had last time I'd been here, the soup seems to be a little too salty this time.  Still full of onion flavour, but probably just a pinch too much salt.  Otherwise, it's still the best onion soup I'd had.

Mum had the Petit Friture a L'Aioli, which is crispy fried calamari, school prawns and whitebait with paprika, orange, frize and aioli.  All were nice and crispy, and the aioli was superb.  I specifically loved the tiny fried prawns.

For main, I had the Biftek - 200g minute steak with cafe de Paris sauce and pommes frites.  This was how it looked when it came.

And here was the steak, after pushing the fries to the side.  The steak was cooked very nicely, between medium to medium rare.  But again, it was a little over salty.  I suspect it's because the pommes fries were on top, which means that extra salt got to the steak and the sauce.

Mum had the Cote De Porc, which was a pork chop with fries.  Nice big piece of pork chop.  Compared to what I had last time, mum thinks that it was a bit dry this time.  But still, it was seasoned well.

Then to finish the meal, I had the Tarte Tatin Aux Poires - the upside down pear tart, as dessert.  Doesn't it look beautiful.  And it tasted superb too.  The pears were soft, the pastry crispy, and the creaminess of the ice-cream with the caramel...It was a match made in heaven.

Compared to the last time I came to Madame Sousou, it did disappoint a little bit.  But it was still a nice place with nice food and reasonable price.  Let's see how it'll be like when I come here next.

Best Macaron in Melbourne

Dessert for the day - Macarons from Le Belle Miette.

Since I'm the only one eating it, I bought six.

Two salted caramel, which is my absolute favourite.  Two lemon, and two mango and coconut.

God I absolutely love the salted caramel.  I don't think I have had better salted caramel anything than this here.

Face on the coffee

A while back when I bought a new handbag, the salesperson told me that there was a coffee place in the city where they draw a face on your coffee instead of the usual leaf, heart shape.  So, I looked it up on the internet, and found the place - Manchester Press.

This is the outside of the place.  It's on a small side alley...no wonder I never spotted the place before...

And this, is the face.  It kind of looks like a man with a hat on, with big round eyes, and a long chin.  Kind of cute, isn't it?

A taste of Mexico

I took mum to Mamasita for lunch today.

This is the first time we have real (I think?) Mexican food.  The place wasn't very big, but was absolutely crowded.  It opens at 12pm, but when we arrived at around 12.15pm, it was already more than two-third full.... Next time remember to be REALLY on time and wait for it to open...

When we looked at the menu, we had no idea what we should get.  

We have no idea what they are, or what the sizes are like.  We basically knew nothing.  Luckily the staffs are very helpful, explained the menu to us, and even suggested on how many things we should get.  

On each table, there are two types of chilli sauce.

We didn't end up trying any of them.  After all, I am not that good with chilli sauce...

As a starter, we had Elotes callejeros, as suggested by the waiter.  On the menu, the explanation was, "Street Style" chargrilled corn, queso, chipotle mayo & lime.  

This was absolutely delicious!  The corn with the mayo sauce, the cheese on top, and the spice!  Oh! Delicious!  It was a very lovely start to the meal.  No wonder nearly everyone orders the corn.  

Then we had the Tostaditas de Cangrejo, meaning Crab meat, avocado, cucumber, tamarind mayo & habenero on fried tortillas.    

This was also very good.  The chilli taste didn't come at first, but after a bit, I could feel it heating up.  Not extremely, but a ting on the tongue.  Nice.  

The next to come was the Tacos.  At first we weren't going to get these.  But when I asked the waiter if he thinks what we ordered will be enough, he suggested that we should get a Tacos each.  So, we did.

The one in front is the Tacos de Camarones, which is Marinated prawns, red chilli & chipotle almond salsa.  The other one is the Tacos de Pescado - Grilled fish, lime, achiote paste, red onion salsa & chipotle mayo.  The Tacos also came with a small Salsa.  

The waiter told us that we were suppose to put this in the Tacos and eat it together.  Since the Tacos weren't that big, so we didn't share and just had one each.  I had the prawn, and mum had the fish.  This was also very tasty.  The Tacos itself was very good, the salsa was full of taste as well.  

Then it was the Torta y Quesadillas de Cordero - Braised lamb, queso criollo, mint & jalapeño herb sauce.   

This, was probably the let down of the meal.  The grilled tortillas was a bit hard.  Taste-wise though, it was good.  But I guess I prefer the soft Tacos more.  

The last to come was, of course, the dessert.  I had the Helado de maiz, which was just a sweetcorn ice cream cone, caramel, popcorn.   

It was nice ice-cream, but I probably won't have it next time.  After all, $6 was a bit expensive for a one scoop cone...

I really liked this place, and I look forward to going there again.  But maybe next time, we should go earlier, like, wait for it to open, so that we can sit at a table, and not at counter seats...

Lunch @ Fedeles

Today I took mum to an Italian restaurant, Fedeles, for lunch.

Like any other fine dinning restaurant, the meal started with complimentary bread and butter.  

Well, we were too hungry that I totally forgotten about taking photos, so I can only take a photo of the empty basket...

This is entree, Oysters Florentine.  This is absolutely the star of the meal.  Absolutely delicious!!

This is the other entree we had, the Pumpkin and Feta Soufflé.  It tastes very good, and full of cheese flavour, but God, was that rich!  There was no way I can finish that and also have the main.  Luckily we were sharing today.  

This is one of the main, Lamb cooked two ways, which was a slow cooked braised lamb and a lamb rack.  The lamb rack was very nicely cooked, moist and just right.  

This is the second main, crispy boned duckling.  The duck, especially the leg part, is quite dry.  Not as good as I would hope it to be.  However, to my surprise, I did find that I quite like the poached pear.  

Lastly, I had a cappuccino, which came with Almond biscotti.  

Nice place, but quite expensive.  Not some place that I would go often.  Maybe once a year?

Lunch @ Spread Eagle

Went to Spread Eagle for lunch today.  Nice and yummy and cheap.  Good place.

Initially I was going to have the porterhouse steak then have the sticky date pudding as dessert, but when I saw on the menu they had Shepard's pie, I know I need to have this.  So there it is, the Shepard's pie.

As can be seen from state of the plate at the end of the meal, I absolutely loved it.

This is the porterhouse steak with mushroom sauce that mum had.

I really like this place.  Nice food, kind of easy to get to, not too much people there, and most of all, cheap.  Let's go there for the sticky date pudding next time.

Home Food

While Mum and C are having their yummy lunch @ Spread Eagle...I am having this home made sandwich @ home

RMB @ Plenty Valley

Local day today.  So I went to a new local cafe for lunch.

I was going to have the duck risotto I saw on the menu last time, but when I went there today, I saw that it was no longer on the menu... Is it just my luck?  Or was it the "change the menu" time of the year???  It seems both places I went to during this long weekend had just changed their menu... Oh well.

No duck risotto.  So I chose the Atlantic Salmon Gnocchi instead.  Not bad.  The sauce was quite creamy and good.

This is the Calamari Fritte, which was what mum had.  Could do with a bit more salt on the calamari, but okay since there is a sauce.

In general, as a local cafe, it's not bad.  It's a place that I will go back to, when I don't feel like driving far to have good food.