Strawberries and cream chiffon cake *
It’s a special occasion today, and I baked a cake especially for it.
It’s my 8th blog birthday! And since it’s been a while since I made a chiffon cake, I thought it would be perfect for the occasion.
About Agnes
Posts by Agnes:
Machi
Alastair and I had an impromptu date night one Thursday a while ago. I ended up working late and Alastair offered to come out and pick me up so I wouldn’t need to PT home in the dark and the rain – awwww.
On the way home we stopped on Inkerman St for a quick dinner. There’s a few options on that strip, and we decided on Machi, a Japanese restaurant.
Southgate Moveable Feasts: Pure South, Waterfront, The Deck
Disclosure: Alastair and I attended courtesy of Southgate and Fuller PR.
It was a cold, wet, winter’s night… that could be the beginning to a really bad novel, but it also perfectly describes Melbourne right now. And it was a cold, wet, winter’s night when Alastair and I headed down to Southgate recently for one of their Moveable Feasts.
Southgate Moveable Feasts is basically a progressive dinner/lunch, where diners have three courses at three different eateries in Southgate. The program is available for Sunday lunch and Monday dinner until early August, for $65 or $85, and a glass of wine accompanies the entree and main courses, and coffee/tea with dessert.
There’s 13 or so participating restaurants for the Moveable Feasts, and the ones that Alastair and I visited were Pure South, Waterfront and The Deck.
Din Tai Fung
So the latest hot opening in Melbourne is Din Tai Fung, which has opened on Level 4 of Emporium. I’m sure we’re all aware of Din Tai Fung – the mega dumpling chain that started in Taiwan over 40 years ago and now has restaurants in 12 different countries. Sydney itself has 7 branches, and the Melbourne one opened only last month.
The Pint of Milk
If I see something a bit different or unusual on a brunch menu, I’m like a fly to honey. There’s no way I can pass it up, even if it’s not something I was initially feeling like eating.
So – have a look at this lovely egg yolk dribbling its way down that piece of toast. Isn’t that pretty?
This was my breakfast recently at The Pint of Milk, and right now it looks like a relatively normal dish of fried eggs and toast – right?
Let’s have another look.
Eat Now
Disclosure: this post is sponsored by EatNow
I used to have a drawer under my TV that was dedicated to takeaway. In the drawer lived a pile of menus from numerous restaurants in surrounding suburbs, as well as odd pens and random scraps of paper.
It wasn’t a particularly good system, with nothing filed in order. Whenever I collected a menu I would throw it in the drawer, and over time they got out of date. Deciding on takeaway meant rummaging through the assorted menus, plus having to pick up the phone to make an order.
Fortunately that’s a thing of the past since I started using EatNow – happily my drawer has been freed up for other things (such as a larger collection of odd pens).
Cecconi’s
Disclosure: I attended and dined courtesy of Cecconi and AMPR.
I suppose we’re officially in winter now, aren’t we? Well, let’s pretend that we’re still in autumn (I’d like to pretend that we’re not in winter anyway) as the other month I was invited to Cecconi’s for an autumn menu tasting.
Cecconi’s has been in the city for quite a long time now: apparently almost a decade, so it’s terrible that this was my first visit to the Flinders Lane location. I actually remember the Cecconi’s that was at Crown, quite a long time ago now – Alastair and I ate there with Annette and Terry not long after we moved to Melbourne.
They must be doing something right to have been around the Melbourne dining scene for so long and I was excited to finally pay them a visit.
Hakata Gensuke
I met Alastair for a quick dinner in the city after work one evening. It was a cold night and what better on a cold night than ramen? Not much, I tell you. So we took the opportunity to try Hakata Gensuke.
Fortunately it was early (ie just about 6pm) as I have heard stories about the queues at Hakata Gensuke. Even so, we did wait outside – fortunately while it was cold it wasn’t raining – for about 5 minutes while we waited for seats to become available.
A day with the Samsung Galaxy A5
Disclosure: The Samsung Galaxy A5 was provided by Edelman Australia and Samsung.
Recently I took the fairly newly released Samsung Galaxy A5 out for a day. I had a wander around the city and met a friend for lunch and took the opportunity to trial the phone.
I love how much phone cameras have improved. They’ve gotten so much better that when we visited Nelson in January, I didn’t use my SLR at all – just my phone. Because I like to leave my SLR at home when I can e.g. during the day when there’s plenty of natural light, a good phone camera is really important to me.