Another food post.  Earlier, I posted that I ventured into Hardware Lane for some awesome Caramel Creme Brulee. This time, I tried another restaurant along this restaurant-clustered lane known as Max Cafe, Bar & Restaurant. 

very contemporary looking restaurant 

Again, I shared an entree and main with my sister.

We had Turkish bread with Trio of Homemade Dips (Spicy Capsicum (I think), Hummus and a Zucchini dip). A very mouthwatering appetizer to get your tummy warmed up for the main course.

As our main, we had Grilled Swordfish on chips and side salad. Nicely marinated, perfectly grilled. All well packed with flavour!

Till my next adventure.....

While everyone here in land down under craze over Max Brenners and San Churros. There's another famous place for some hot chocolate to warm yourselves this winter (especially when it's predicted to be a uber cold winter this year) that is Koko Black, offering authentic European Chocolate works. After a scrumptious meal at Copperwood, Lygon, my sis and I crossed the streets and stopped for some yummy hot chocolate.

I had Hazelnut Belgium Hot Chocolate. Frankly, I expected it to maybe too sweet for my liking, but it wasn't! It was actually just nice and the hazelnut flavour made it even better!!

My sis had the normal Belgium Hot Chocolate. Another one to love.

Mmmmm... Nothing's better than a cup of good quality hot chocolate to warm me 

So my sister's in town for awhile, which means.... FOOD VENTURE!!! Yay! 

First stop: Lygon Street for some yum yum..

Whenever I were to dine in Lygon, it'll always be either 1 of those asian restaurant at the start of Lygon (from the city) or Universals. But this time, I decided to walk from the other side of Lygon and stumbled upon this cozy looking restaurant - Copperwood Restaurant (click and check out their cool website).  Went to have a look at the menu and thought we'd give it a try. Copperwood offers quite a wide selection of classic italian cuisines. Tapas $9.20 - $12.90, Entrees $6 - $18.50, Salads $7.50 to $19.50, Mains (pizza, risotto, pasta and others $8.50 - $33. 

We tried the Chicken Caesar Salad - $19.50

Chicken grilled to perfection and lettuce so fresh. 

As the main, we shared Copperwood's awesome Garlic Prawns - $33

Consists of sauteed succulent prawns with garlic, white wine & cream sauce accompanied with steamed capsicums, zucchini and egg plants. Ooo mama meya! Its was absolutely delicious!!!

Definitely returning for more...

A week ago, I was wondering through the streets of Melbourne with maekhoo, in search of a place to eat. We stumbled upon this small street in the heart of Melbourne - Hardware Lane. This european architectural heritage is located further up Bourke and Elizebeth Street (Turn right, right after Maccas). There are quite a few european restaurants all clustered together and we chose this little Italian restaurant called Vialetto Ristorante.  We enjoyed our meal (well, at least I did), that I brought my sister there when she came to visit.

The sucken interior of the restaurant, furnished with little lamps hanging from the ceiling, has its own attraction. Somehow it gave me this really cozy feeling which I'm unable to describe. 

Now,the food. Vialetto's menu is filled with exotic flavours which include seafood, meat, goats cheese and even kangaroo! Appetizers ranging from $8.50 - $29.90. Mains from $18.50 - $28.90 and desserts for $12.90 each. They also have quite a range of vintage wines from what I saw.

I tried the Roasted Pork Belly $26.90

Slow roasted, served on mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables with red wine jus.

It was soooo good. Roasted to perfection, so succulent. The skin, I have to say, was the best part for me. So crunchy when you bite in to it, and it sort of melted in my mouth... mmmmm. The red wine jus however, if it was just slightly thinner, it would have been perfect!

Maekhoo tried the Veal Scallopini $28.50

Pan seared veal medallions with mushrooms, onions and garlic in a white wine cream sauce with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

 This wasn't that bad either. I thought the veal was a little dry but thank god for the sauce. haha. Still quite yummy. Worth a try.

Now the highlight of the meal. This was the reason I brought my sister back there. 

Caramel Creme Brulee - $12.90

Home made and served with vanilla ice cream.

I LOVE creme brulee and creme caramels. This was like a combination of both! The caramel flavour to it really blowed my mind. Definitely worth trying! Though I was pretty disappointed when I went back for it the second time (with my sister), it wasn't properly done. :( But, I still say, MUST TRY!!!

Can't remember the last time I did a proper food post.. So here's 1..

Been working on my Strategic Management assignment for the whole week last week. Right after I handed it in, I immediately hopped on the next bus down to the City. Met up with Maekhoo, Paul, Aaron and their friend for lunch at Wanton Noodle House on Swanston Street a few shops down from Maccas.

So here's what we've ordered...

Xiao Long Bao.

If I'm not mistaken it was $4 for 6, but totally NOT worth it!!!

This was the suckiest xiao long bao I've ever tasted! The skin was too thick and starchy, there weren't much soup in it thus, the baos were really dry. 

But the noodles on the other hand were not so bad. I only got to taste what I ordered and not the rest because I was too hungry to bother when I noodle came.

I had Beef Combo Noodle Soup $9.20

This was pretty ok, the noodle was springy, meat was tasty, only thing was the soup being a little too salty. 

Maekhoo & her girl friend shared Beef & Wanton Noodle Soup

According to Maekhoo, it wasn't too bad. 

Paul ordered Sweet & Sour Pork with rice.

It looks pretty yummy huh? But he said it sucked...

Aaron's Fish & Toufu with rice

This one was not bad according to Aaron. "The toufu's yummy"

What can I say, the boy sure loves his toufus...

Now the service, service that day was terrible!

HORRIBLE! TERRIBLE! 

The waiters were impatient when taking order, and those that came to serve our food just dumped the bowls and plates on the table with a loud bang and walked out. Not even a slight smile on their faces.

When clearing plates, some didn't even asked if we're finished with it, some sorta rushed us to finish. And the bill came right after we put our chopsticks down! They didn't even want to give us time to rest our tummies! SUCKS!!

Rating: 3/10

I wanna love,
I wanna leave.
I want you to love me,
I want you to leave me.
I want to stand where I can see,
I'm watching you love me,
And I'm watching you leave me now.

I wish i could be,
Somebody else.
I wish i could see,
You and myself.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.
And say,
What you really feel.
You know i need,
Something that's real.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.

I wanna know if i could be,
Someone to turn to,
That could never hurt you.
But i know what you think of me,
You had a breakthrough,
And now i'm just bad news for you.

I wish i could be,
Somebody else.
I wish i could see,
You and myself.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.
And say,
What you really feel.
You know i need,
Something that's real.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.

I should've told you everything.
I never gave you anything.
I should've told you everything.
If i could give you anything,
Then i would tell you everything.

I wish i could be,
Somebody else.
I wish i could see,
You and myself.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.
And say,
What you really feel.
You know i need,
Something that's real.
I wish there was something inside me,
To keep you beside me.

I should've told you everything.
I should've told you everything.
I should've told you everything.


Basically sums up what my heart wants to say.. Enjoy :)

So last Thursday, I crashed another Monash party. This time it was organized by MONSU and OSS, called the Naughty Nautical Booze Cruise. Basically everyone just had to dressed nautical (some dressed sexy hot, sexy naughty, normal and most of the boys came as pirates. There were a handful who literally came with just swimming trunks and inflatable tubes. Totally hilarious!) and go partying on an old Victorian Cruise with freaking cheap booze on board!

So while waiting to go onboard, we thought we start finger-trigging while we're still sober.

Top: Maekhoo, Aaron & Paul were some who crashed the party as well.

Bottom: with PirateLeon & Maekhoo.

With Rob as Napoleon. So cool! 

Once on board, there were boxes of pizzas on the table, and everyone started digging in without hesitation! 

It wasn't long after the party started and you can already hear glasses banging against each other in the bin! I had quite a lot to drink (2 and a half bottles. Ok, it may not be much for most people but considering I just started drinking again and I have freaking low alcohol tolerance ok! Give me some credit!)

Since it's a booze party, it's only right if I had a bottle in my hand as a party prop :)

Well, it wasn't just me,

Yong and Amanda both had props. And so did everyone else. HAHA!

With Amanda and Maekhoo

PimpYong just had to have his pimp pictures! Wahooooo~~~

Niak's with the sailor hat and Regina's the 1 in the front.

With all the cheap-ass boozes served, we can't blame everyone for going back for seconds, thirds, some had like at least 10 rounds of drinks! When I mean cheap, I mean, the most expensive bottle of alcohol was like $5.50! No shots available of coz, but still. Who can complain?!

And with that amount of alcohol in our system, who can control themselves and not go crazy?!

PimpYong & Guri

Some pirate had too much rum and fell asleep, while others make a fool out of him. That's PirateShayan on the far left.

From the pictures, it's obvious that everyone had a freaking awesome, kick-ass (as Amanda likes to call it) time! I know I had! :D

I drank over my limit and danced to max that my knee started hurting (but that was tomorrow's problem)!!!

We can't just end parties without group shots right?! So here's 1.

*I don't own a compact camera, and carrying a DSLR around a party like this is really inconvenient, so Maekhoo's my handy-dandy camera lady for now. Picture credits to her.

There's many more pictures taken by others. And I haven't got the chance to get a copies from them yet. But I'll upload more once I've got them so WATCH THIS SPACE! 

One more tiny bit... What I'm love bout drinking that night was, the alcohol gave me a really nice natural blush. LOL! and I was sooo happy that my make-up didn't smudge at all! Usually very paranoid bout that.

Have a nice day everyone :)