Disclosure: I attended courtesy of The Westin & Q Strategies.
I have been to rather a lot of afternoon teas in the past couple of years, so it’s always nice when I go to one that’s a little bit different.
The Westin is serving An Eclair Affair in the Lobby Lounge every afternoon until 30 June – and the point of difference? Instead of the usual little cakes and sandwiches, the afternoon tea comes with savoury and sweet eclairs. There are still scones (it wouldn’t be afternoon tea without them, right?) with accompanying jam and cream, but the stars on the stand are the eclairs.
Warning warning: not a food post. There’s only orangutans within. Really, really cute orangutans though. 🙂
We had to see orangutans when we went to Borneo, since they’re native to Borneo and Sumatra.
There’s actually two species: the Bornean orangutan and the Sumatran orangutan. We saw the Bornean orangutan on two occasions – once at a wildlife centre called Matang Ai (which, I wouldn’t recommend, it’s a bit of a sad place – cages and concrete enclosures) and the second time at Semenggoh Nature Reserve.
I always say I’m not really a birthday person, but that’s not strictly true. I don’t like to celebrate my own birthday, but I enjoy celebrating other people’s. And by celebrating, I mean: torturing.
And by torturing, I mean torturing with love and attention and cake OF COURSE.
(And birthday lasagne, but only for the very special ones.)
But for my most recent birthday in December, I was keen to do something because reasons. It was on a Friday, so I thought it would be nice to have a long weekend away.
One thing I really wanted to do on our holiday was a cooking class.
Before we left Melbourne, I did a search online and found Bumbu Cooking School. After a couple of emails back and forth, I had booked Alastair and myself into a morning class. Alastair and I wandered down to Carpenter Street early one morning and met Joseph, and our teachers for the day, Bernadene and her mother Elise. We also met the other couple participating that day (who were from South Australia).
As posted previously, part 1 of the class involved a market tour, during which we picked up a couple of items for the class: midin, freshly grated coconut and curry paste.
The Mornington Peninsula is one of my favourite day trips from Melbourne. It’s such a nice part of Victoria and only about 60-90 minutes drive from the city. There’s good food, lots of wineries, craft breweries, a couple of excellent cheeseries, and other produce producers.
Mornington Peninsula Tourism has recently launched Wine Food Farmgate, a program to help visitors discover all the great food and wine producers on the Peninsula. The program consists of a book, the website, a trail map, mini cooler bag and regional recipe cards, and features restaurants, wineries, produce growers and gourmet stores.
The other weekend, Alastair and I got together with Shellie, Haz, Gaz, Thanh and Michelle for a trip through our own Wine Food Farmgate trail.
Our journey started on Saturday, when we gathered for lunch at Yabby Lake Vineyard. After a lovely lunch (coming up in Part 2) our group split up to tackle a few different locations.
Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Mr Nice Guy and Zilla & Brook.
Mr Nice Guy could be run by two of the nicest people in hospitality. Owned by the same people behind Middle Fish – Pla Liamthong and David Holtum – Mr Nice Guy came from a desire to do a night time trade, something that Middle Fish was restricted from for a long time.
Where Middle Fish serves more traditional Thai food, Mr Nice Guy’s focus is a bit more fusion – incorporating Thai flavours with more modern cooking techniques.
There is Guinness on tap, some pretty good pub meals, but there’s definitely no quiet.
The Guinness is a clue to the background of The Quiet Man: it’s an Irish pub on Racecourse Road in Flemington. Alastair and I have eaten there several times, and the food is generally pretty good. The menu is quite large, covering classics like fish and chips, chicken parma, and steak, plus other dishes with an Irish twist.
Several months ago, Alastair and I had an impromptu dinner there. We were lucky to get a table – I recommend booking on Friday or Saturday nights as they do get quite busy.
Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Silks, Crown and Media Moguls.
In the Chinese / lunar calendar, the mid-autumn festival is one of the most important events of the year. It’s held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar year, when the moon is said to be at its brightest.
One of the ways the festival is celebrated is by eating mooncakes – confections / pastries made with a thin pastry skin and traditionally filled with lotus paste or red bean and often containing salted egg yolk (my favourite part and anyone who does like yolks, well you have no taste thanks bye).
This year, the mid-autumn festival falls on Thursday 19 September. In the couple of weeks leading up to it, there’s a series of events happening at Crown, including a special banquet menu available at Silks.
The reason Alastair and I ended up at Hallah with Kat and Josh was due to fried chicken.
But before we begin, I must warn you – there’s no happy ending for this fried chicken story. I had a massive fried chicken craving and we were in North Melbourne to attempt to feed it. Unfortunately the place we wanted to go was packed. Kat’s suggestion for noodles (I know, not even close to fried chicken) wasn’t open. Our usual secret Korean haunt was way too busy.
So I suggested Hallah, a couple of doors down. Alastair and I had eaten at Hallah many years ago and I knew they did KFC.
But, but, but. When we sat down and looked at the menu – fried chicken was only served during lunch or after 9pm.
Yes, yes, beef ribs again. I’m telling you – it’s going to be a thing if it isn’t already.
I cooked this dish on two separate occasions. The first time, I wasn’t intending to blog it. But as soon as I ate it, my head went, “This is so yum!” so I had to cook it again to take photos. 🙂
And it was an easy process because I just poached the ribs in a soy sauce master stock. Do you have a master stock? They are the best. If you’re thinking, “What’s a master stock?” it’s a flavoured liquid that’s used to repeatedly poach/braise food. Instead of discarding it after cooking, it’s used again and again, picking up more flavour each time.
