The Lee-sisters venture is coming to an end. 2 days 1 night passed so quickly. And for our Grande Venture Finale, we ventured to Federation Square for some Japanese food!

If you haven't been following our 'sort-of food venture', you can read it by clicking on Brunetti, Melbourne U and Meat & Wine Co. , and Victoria Market & DFO South Warth.

Now back to the main point of this post. So we went to a Japanese Restaurant called Chocolate Buddha in Federation Square. A cozy restaurant perfect for chilling over yummy delicious Japanese cuisines and wine or beer. It's slightly pricey but I'd say it's worth paying for such fresh and yummy meals that's big enough to satisfy a tummy like mine (if you know what I mean) once in awhile.

As usual, in all Japanese restaurants, their kitchen concept would always be an open-kitchen concept.

You can choose to either sit inside the restaurant where it's warm and cozy or chill outside in the cold and windy weather that we're having now in Melbourne as it's close to winter time.

Buddha decorations around the restaurant...

I ordered Nateyaki Udon - Udon with tempura prawns, shitake mushrooms, seaweed. poached egg and grilled chicken slice. $23

This was yummy, though I would have preferred if they would have served the tempura prawns separately. The batter of the prawns turns soggy in the soup and it doesn't feel nice eating it when the batter's soggy. It still tastes good but the feeling of the sogginess in your mouth just doesn't feel nice..
As for my sister, Ton Katsu Don - Pork chop rice with curry served with miso soup. $19.80

This is something new to me as I've never tried Japanese curry dishes before. It sounded weird but it actually tasted pretty good! Worth a try.

Overall, I would say it's worth having a go for Chocolate Buddha. Yummy cuisines with friendly services. The only thing was the soggy tempura batter. Other than that, it was a lovely experience. Can't wait to go back and try their sashimi and sushi!!!

The Lee-Sisters journey continues -2nd day.

If you've missed the 1st day's journey, I blogged about a yummy cake shop, Brunetti and a peep into Melbourne University's Law Faculty and also an awesome dinner at The Meat & Wine Co.

On our 2nd day touring (when I said 'our', I literally meant 'our' because I haven't been around the city much, hehe) the city of Melbourne, we ventured to Queen Victoria Market. Just above La Trobe St. in the city. You can practically get anything from this market from meat to vege to fruits to little snacks to souvenirs. And thats why my sister wanted to go there, to get souvenirs; while I just go there for the food. :D

For breakfast, Churros!!! You can find this lil spanish donuts truck store by the main road of the souvenir part of the market.

They were quite yummy. Long strips of donuts, dusted with icing sugar. Slightly crunchy on the outside but soft and spongy on the inside.

oh and this is my favourite part of the market, as we were walking, we passed by this lil candy shop called 'Suga'. I went CRAZY in this shop! They only sold 1 type of candy but in various flavours. And why I went crazy was because they were ROCK CANDIES!!! I absolutely L-O-V-E rock candies ever since I tried the ones that my teacher custom ordered for her wedding as door gifts. Sooo yummy!!! I remember packing 500 boxes (5 each in 1 box) of this candy for her wedding along with Tet Leon, Andrew and Christopher. So fun and yummy! hehe.. I couldn't stop eating the small broken bits of the candy while packing.

In this shop - Suga, I was spoiled for choice! They had sooo many different flavours to choose from and I didn't know which to pick. In the end, I ended up with a pack of Passionfruit flavoured rock candy. I was a happy girl :)

We stopped at some lil snack stalls along the way, looking for nougats.

These chocolates looked absolutely evil!!! so yummy!

There were stalls selling some savories too.. And this particular shop, I saw yummy Caramel Chocolate Fudge! I was tempted, and I gave into temptation :D

Yum Yum Yummies!!! Caramel Chocolate Fudge. So soft and chewy with rich caramel flavour!

I was a happy sugar-high girl then...

After buying all the souvenirs she needed, we walked down Swanston Street heading towards the city central, we stopped for lunch at this lil cafe. Had some delicious pastas :)

My Sis's, Primavera with Fettuccine. $13.90.

It had fresh seasonal vegetables, mushrooms, pesto, roasted pine nuts, basil & spinach cooked in a light napoli sauce. Was not bad at all.

And me, being a HUGE prawn fan (and since I'm in Aussie now, fresh prawns everywhere!!!), I ordered Gamberi with Fettuccine, $15.90

Fettuccine with fresh prawns, spring onion & chilli cooked in a creamy napoli sauce..

mmmm~~~ yum yumm~~~

And after eating, we exercised our way to DFO South Warth. We got confused a little along the way but we finally managed to find our way there... Tada...

Welcome to DFO South Warth.

It was a looooong walk!! I felt hungry once we arrived =.='

DFO = Direct Factory Outlet.

Supposedly having cheaper priced stuff from brands like Guess, Marc Jacob, Sportsgirl, Factorie, Bonds, Adidas, Nike and etc. But really, it wasn't that much cheaper.. It's cheaper but... hahaha...

I saw this converse and I really liked it! So tempted to buy!!! But it costs like $75. So yeah, having second-thoughts now :(

After hours off walking, in and out of various shops. The both of us ended up buying something from Fossil. Epic fail big time =.='

My sis bought a leather purse while for me........

TA DA~~~~

I ended up buying myself a watch....

Well, technically it's 2 watches as I bought the 'customize your watch' style from Fossil where you have to choose a watch head and a band to go with it. And the offer was 'buy a head and a band and get another band free'.

And their all genuine leather bands. Same goes for my sis's purse.

Now with these watches, I'm an above happy girl that day :D

After shopping, we headed back towards the city for dinner.

We had delicious Japanese dinner at Chocolate Buddha.

Stay tune for the next post to find out :)

So my sis's and my journey on Friday continues...

From Brunetti along Lygon St. we journeyed via Bus No.11 (legs) to Melbourne University. Why? Simply because we heard (well, she heard is more like it) that the law faculty in Melbourne U looks a bit like Hogwarts (Harry Potter's school). And it does, a lil. Especially when you're wondering around during the evening. The gloominess of the sky gives a mysterious feeling to it...

Here are a few snapshots of the place...

I like this clock tower, it gives an old English feel. I love looking at old English buildings. Don't ask me why, I don't even know why myself.

We took a loooooong walk back towards Crowns along the Yarra River. Because our dinner reservation was only at 8.30pm, we still had like an hour plus to burn.. So we ventured into Crowns, went into the shops, had a lil snack (sushi! :D ), went up and down, left and right, all over crowns and ended up all the way the other side of Crowns. Couldn't find our way back, so we had to walk even more to make our way to the restaurant.

There was a looooong queue into the restaurant. Thank god I called and reserved a table. Even when I called, they were almost fully booked. The only time I could reserve was either 6.30pm or 8.30pm.

*note: Always make reservations if you're planning to eat in this restaurant on weekends! Always!

From the title of this post, you'd already guessed which restaurant I'm talking about. Yes, it's none other than The Meat & Wine Co. It was my 2nd time eating there, and let me tell you, their ribs are SUPERB!!! Have a look at my 1st visit..

For this visit, we ordered...

Mixed Bread Platter which had garlic bread, herb bread and bruschetta (2 slices each) - $19.

Huge slices of bread. It's crunchy and spongy at the same time and each bread's full of flavor. As you can see in the picture below, the bruchetta tastes the best! With chopped fresh tomatoes, olives and chunks of fetta cheese... mmmmm~~~

A half rack of lamb ribs for $29. Slow-cooked in BBQ sauce and finished on a flaming hot char-grill. Sealed to perfection with Meat & Wine Co's unique taste and flavour. Served with real potato chips. What I meant by real is that it's not frozen chips. I've tried this during my 1st visit, but this time, the ribs taste even more yummy compared to the last time. The last time was also very yummy though.

This time round, since we had a bigger budget to eat on, we took the opportunity to taste The Meat & Wine Co.'s super-aged meat. And we chose The Meat & Wine Co.'s Wagyu!! :D

Their Wagyu is grained-fed for up to 500 days and with a selected minimum marble score of 6+ gives the wonderful succulent, rich and juicy beef flavour that high quality Wagyu is renowned for. Look how yummy that is!!! A 500g Wagyu rump for $49 :D

For those of you who don't know what the marble score is about. Marbled meat, especially red meat, is meat that contains various amounts of 'intra-muscular fat', which gives the marble pattern on the meat, like this

So the Wagyu rump's marble score that we had should look something like the middle Wagyu Ribeye. And research has showns that the monounsaturated fats in Wagyu beef can help to reduce cholesterol levels in the body. The marbling is also 1 of the reason for the unique flavour, texture and moisture of Wagyu beef. * I googled about it, didn't know what the marbling was about either :)*

We had our rump medium rare... Yum Yum Yummies~~~ :D

And for dessert, how can we not end dinner at The Meat & Wine Co. without a grand finale right... So the 'Grand Finale' it was, for dessert.. It's superb! It consists of everything on the dessert menu in 1 dish. From back (Pineapple cheesecake, pecan pie with malt ice-cream,

chocolate fondante with vanilla ice-cream and vanilla creme brulee.)

I had that the 1st time I ate there too. But this time, I added something extra. I told the waiters to add a candle on it to surprise my sis, as a belated birthday celebration.

Look at the chocolate oozing out!!! YUM!!! :D

Overall, dinner was superbly yummy!! and you want to know the best part???

Dinner was on ME!!!! :D

Well, technically it was on my dad. But it's part of my savings from my pocket money too!!!

and it was all worth it.. :D

It's been awhile since I did a food post about a specific food outlet. Kinda miss people complaining that I'm making them hungry.. Hehe..

So here goes 1 for you hungry readers! :)

My sis was working in Tasmania for bout 2 weeks and dropped by Melbourne to see me (hehe) last weekend (sadly, only a night) before heading back to Sabah. On Friday, I skipped class (mom, if you're reading, big smile :D), went to meet her at the skybus terminal, got her settled in my room, had some breakfast and planned where to head to next. Instead of her being the tourist, I was being the tourist! Instead of me showing her around, bringing her to see the city of melbourne, she was the one bringing and showing me around. I know, damn fail =.=' but hey! i don't go out much!!! Give me time!!! I'll explore at my own speed. (speed of a turtle that is :D)

Anyway, we head down to the city and walked to Lygon Street. A street flooded with F-O-O-D! And some outlets are quite reasonably priced and quite packed too!

So we stopped at this cafe called Brunetti. It was packed! A really busy cafe that serves a wide range of cake-lets, tartlets, puddings and savories to choose from. Oh and chocolates too!! And did I mention that their coffee smells good too!

Just look at them! I went crazy in that shop. Had a hard time choosing what to eat!

In the end, we ordered these!

From left-clockwise: -

-Sacher Torte: Chocolate sponge with layers of almond pieces, apricot jam, chocolate ganache and kirsh liquere, covered with in chocolate ganache.

-Brutti E Buoni: which mean 'Ugly but nice' . A flour-less hazelnut maccaroon.

-Bicchierini Chocolate & Vanilla: It's layers of vanilla mousse and chocolate ganache, topped with chocolate sprinkles.

-Amaretti: A flour-less almond maccaroon.

-Mixed Fruit Tart: A mixed fruit tart-let.

All so yummy yummy!!!

Here are some of the full cakes sold there...

Esotica - A semi freddo mousse made with a mixed berry bavarian cream, cointreau liqueur and a thin layer of vanilla mousse.

Profiterole - Profiteroles filled with zabalone cream and topped with dark chocolate ganache.

Fraicheur Des Bois - A chocolate sponge with red berry compote, vanilla & white chocolate mousse and topped with white chocolate glaze.

And these lil maccaroon towers...

Don't they all look soooooo irresistible?!?!?!

I went sugar high even before having any sugar in me!!! Lol :D

Oh and you can even pre-oder your birthday cakes and I think you can even customize your order if I'm not mistaken.

These are 2 birthday cakes that made me go wow! They were HUGE cakes!!

Look so yummy! They all taste so yummy!!

Next post - Dinner at Meat & Wine co.

So it's Mother's Day today... Bet everyone is celebrating with your mom...

I on the other hand, too far away to celebrate with my mom :(

But fret not mom! For I've prepared this video just for you!!!

It's nothing much but hope you'll like it :D

Happy Mother's Day!!! <33333

Lots of hugs and kisses :D

So how did you guys celebrate mother's day?

Sorry for the lack of updates...Been reeeeaaaallly busy with assignments...

Just had 2 MAJOR 30% assignments due in the same week! Therefore, I haven't had much sleep!!! arrgghhh...

Well I handed in my assignments yesterday and I felt like a HUGE rock had been lifted off me. Phew~~~ But sadly only for a few days and I have to start working on my group presentation! Sucks :'(

Anywayyy... shall not think bout that now. I shall relax~~~~ ahhhh~~~ :D

Went to watch Letter to Juliet after class yesterday.

(picture from Google)

The cinema wasn't crowded at all!! There were only 3 people including me watching this movie! Was sooo nice!! Till those 2 other girls started laughing at God knows what! Arghh!! Just can't enjoy a nice quite moment watching a simple sweet love story these days. Sigh =.='

To me, the movie was nice. Simple and sweet.

After the movie, before heading home, I decided to treat myself to some indulgence :D

Bought some chocolates... Mmm~~~

The 2 round ones are Champagne Truffles. I personally don't like it at all! It gives a really bitter after taste. I think it's because of the alcohol in it. At least, I think there was alcohol in it. Lol!

The one in the middle is Hazelnut Chocolate. This was not bad at all. A little sweet, but the it blends really well with the hazelnut taste in it.

And the Spoons!!!!

I really really L-O-V-E this white chocolate spoon!! Taste sooo heavenly!!

Oh and I bought sushi too!! Salmon and Prawn set :D

The salmon and prawns are soooooo fresh I tell you! So yummy! And there were more than what you see in the picture. Ate some before snapping a picture. Teehee :D

Ate it while watching When in Rome online.

(picture from google)

And the last treat I bought for myself were non other than creamy cakes!! Hehe :D

(Front: Tiramisu; Back: Hazelnut Slice)

It looked better when I was buying it. The cream was destroyed by the girl while she was packing it. They don't have proper boxes for sliced cakes, only if you buy a whole cake, then it'll come with a nice box. =.='

But allll these happy feeling turned into a nightmare when I saw a HUGE spider on the jap boy's (my housemate) room door!!! Jeepers Creepers!!!!

It's ok, I shall not waste my few days of paradise. Shall continue enjoying my yummy cakes and movie :D

Till the next post... :)