Wake me up when May is over

Sigh, now that the Easter holidays are over, I’m really lacking in mojo in work and in my studies. It doesn’t help that May is crunch time for me, the work environment has never been more depressing, and my studyload is sky high.

Luckily the Easter hols was a really good break and I managed to cut some to-do chores from my long list. For example, I finally planted some flowers and plants in my garden! My little garden is proudly sporting a lime tree and a dwarf peach tree, I hope they bear fruit in the future .

After a hard day of gardening (R not me) in the sun, it’s nice to have a late afternoon snack of instant noodles and an icy cold drink.

A double date with the cute couple at Chimes and my first try at a Banoffee Pie, bananas and toffee are good match (^_^).

New lunch bento item, butter chicken with basmati rice, yums. I don’t really like Indian food but butter chicken is one yummy curry.

Sarawak laksa for Easter. We made a huge pot and freezed most of the stock for future laksa cravings. I am really loving my chest freezer, one of my best buys ever. At least the weekend is here, I must stop procrastinating and work doubly hard at my assignments. Wish me luck!

2 weeks blitz

It’s been more than a week since my last blog post! It definitely wasn’t due to lack of blogging material (I still have so many food places that I haven’t blogged about not to mention the Japan posts which have been overdue for a year *gulp*), I think I’ve just been feeling a little blue due to work. But at least the Easter holidays are almost here! I can’t wait.

This post merges my past two weekend eating. Last last weekend, we went to the trendy Venn for breakfast. I would probably never have discovered Venn (even though it’s so near work) if it wasn’t for Jaso. I don’t know how he finds out about all these up and coming places but he’s a great source of foodie information.

It’s worth going to Venn just to check out the gorgeous architecture and interior design of the building. The old flour mill factory is split into three stories, the ground level being the art studio, street level being the shop (selling cool and expensive knick knacks) and the bar/cafe, and the second level being an art gallery. I really liked how they made use of the light and the tall ceilings, it was a comfortable and airy space.

Back to the food, the breakfast menu wasn’t extensive so there wasn’t much to choose from. Both Jaso and HC has the poached eggs on toast which came out looking very healthy and green. Nothing spectacular but not bad at all.

Calv and I both had the roast beef bagel. I don’t know why, maybe it’s the mysterious hole in the middle, but I really like bagels. This bagel was one of the best bagels I’ve had in Perth, it was soft without being too soft, chewy and yet had a crispy lightly toasted exterior. Cal and I really enjoyed our bagel.

The coffee was good. Pretty milk patterns are always a plus (^___^). All in all, a good find so thanks for the recommendation Jas.

Venn
16 Queen Street
Perth, WA 6000 Australia

While I usually plan my dinner and lunch venues ahead(this includes checking out the menu and already choosing what I’m going to have), sometimes unplanned foodie adventures can be the best.

The couple Jason and Wendy were the ones that introduced me to Chime. They told us about how they planned to go to Chime restaurant  for lunch, but since it was not open, they ended up heading across the road to Phi Yen for good Vietnamese instead.

It was the exact opposite scenario for us. We headed to Phi Yen for some pho, but the restaurant was busy and the waitresses didn’t bother to serve us. So we headed across the road to Chime for lunch instead! The restaurant itself is located in the newly refurbished Northbridge Hotel, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we were the only table besides a couple of ladies enjoying a bottle of wine and a late lunch.

R had the premium sirloin with mash and pepper sauce. The steak was more medium than medium rare in some places, but otherwise the pepper sauce was tasty with the steak.

Even before my caramelised pork belly arrived, the two ladies sitting behind us who both ordered the pork belly were already making ‘mmmm’ sounds with every bite. It was quite funny. The asian style pork belly came with yellow turmeric rice and condiments like fried shallots, chilli vinegar sauce. The rice itself wasn’t heavily spiced and lacked taste, but that was fine because the pork belly was richly flavoured, sweet, beautifully caramelized, sticky and chewy. A heavily spiced turmeric rice would have overpowered the taste of the pork belly.

It really was delicious and a sinful indulgence. In hindsight, I think the flavours were a little bit too intense and strong, causing me to feel rather thirsty afterwards, but I could totally understand why the ladies were making ‘mmm’ sounds throughout their meal.

With a buy one main get one main free deal from our entertainment card, it was a great deal and a surprisingly lovely lunch.
Chime Restaurant
210 Lake Street, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003
(cnr Brisbane Street)

Cooking from last weekend. This was Penne Marinara which I tossed with fish fillets, mussels and prawns.

The pork belly from Chimes was so nice that it inspired me to cook pork belly the next day. Mine was nothing like Chimes though and very Malaysian with the usual soy sauce, star anise flavours.

Sometimes simple meals like stir fried broccolli and carrots with grilled chicken wings can be nice for dinner. My chicken wings were marinated with hoisin sauce, honey and five spice powder.

We received a whole bagful of plums during the weekend. Not eating them fast enough, I decided to use them in a dessert tonight, the only problem with Plum Tarte Tatin? They’re not as pretty as Pear tarte tatin or apples.

Two more days to Easter and counting!

My new favourite cafe @ Boucla

Today I had breakfast with some female colleagues before work. We were there to try out the cafe where her hubby works as the general manager and head barista. I was kinda embarrassed when she introduced me to the cute 19 year old barista as ‘the coffee aficionado’. ‘this is the one you want to impress’ she said which I protested ‘ no no! I’m just learning!’ But it was too late, the sweet boy looked at me earnestly with ‘ ahhh….’ eyes. Oh dear. I think my daily cups of Velvet takeaways have given my colleagues the wrong impression that I’m a real coffee nut, when in truth, I am just so lucky to have the lovely and mighty Velvet within a stone’s throw from my office.

Speaking of good coffee, I’ve known about Boucla since my uni days (and that’s very long ago). Back then I was completing a placement at an organisation located opposite, I once offered to buy coffee for my supervisor and she solemnly said ‘the best is at Boucla’. Of course I wasn’t interested in coffee back in those days and was more interested in stuffing my face with the gorgeous jam donuts from the nearby Jean Claude Pattiserie.

This little cafe is practically an institution in Subiaco, always very busy and popular amongst the locals. The interior of Boucla is dim, warm and exotic, someone once described it as ‘Aladdin’s cave’ and that’s the perfect description. A mini treasure trove that serves fabulous coffee and cakes.

It’s difficult to find a good cafe that serves great coffee AND great cakes in Perth. It’s always one or the other. Cakes too often are stale, dry or mass produced. But the cakes and tarts and little treats in Boucla makes one salivate, you don’t know where to start, you can’t make up your mind. The beautiful vegetable filo tarts, chocolate and ricotta cake or fresh, colourful greek salads?

We settled for the banana walnut cake which was gorgeous, so moist, with chockful of nuts, crispy banana chips, sooo good. I wish I could have some now *sad*.

My coffee was fantastic. I tried to sip it bit by bit to savour the creaminess, the smooth texture, the fragrance, but it was too late, I drained away my glass and R laughed at my sad face, knowing that I wanted more. It went so well with the cake, or should I say the cake went so well with my coffee?

Enough said. My new favourite cafe. I will be returning.

Boucla Cafe
349 Rokeby Rd
Subiaco
Phone: 9381 2841

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 8/10

Service: 6/10

The Imp

I’m so glad that The Imp is conveniently located near my house. A new addition to the Albany Highway coffee strip, we’ve passed by this tiny, buzzing cafe several times on our way to other restaurants, but never popped in to have a bite thinking that it was just a small bar. We were delighted when we found out that The Imp is not a bar, bur rather is a b.y.o. cafe  with free corkage (only if you order tapas though) that serves a wide range of tapas, breakfast, cakes and coffees.

Did I mention the coffee? Coffee here is smooth, addictive, fragrant, good coffee that doesn’t need sugar. They use Fiori beans, not that I know what’s the difference but I hear it’s a GOOD THING. It’s not yet Velvet level, but it’s getting there, so good that after my first visit, I returned three times in two weeks.

But it isn’t really just about the coffee. The cakes. The mini yummylicious cakes disguised as muffins. This was the pineapple cake which was nice but not on par with my favourite. After staring at their sticky date puddings which are served in mugs and overflowing with caramel sauce, I couldn’t get the image out of my mind for days. We returned a couple of times only to find that the pudding was sold out, arrgh (btw, I did finally get to eat it and it was nice but just not as wow as I expected).

This is my favourite, the orange syrup cake. Anything orange I usually like. But this one cut the cake *pun intended*.

It was moist with hints of dessicated coconut and soft, and moist with marmaladey slightly sticky syrupy texture. Not too sweet, it’s one of my favourite cakes now. So good that I went searching for the recipe today and shall try it out in the near future. I’ve tried most of their cakes now, there’s the sinful chocolate cheesecake (so bad but so good) and the chocolate fudge cake, I just have to bring Calv and Xinlong here, they would love it.

I hesitate to give The Imp ratings because I’ve yet to try their tapas and grapevine has it that they’re really good. I will go one day, but they’re kinda on the pricey side for tiny dishes (as tapas in Perth are) so it’ll have to be a special night when I’m ready to splurge. BUT.. they do have an affordable breakfast menu as we discovered when we brought Jaso from Gero there last weekend.

Jason had the Spinach and Mushroom on Toast with mascarpone cheese ($9.50) which came in a big serving and was yummy. Baby spinach, mushrooms and mascarpone and really nice toast, fantastic combination.

Jo and HC shared the Hangover roll which was a toasted roll with an omelette made of tomatoes, jalapenos, tomato, spinach and a side of chutney ($11). It was really quite huge and I know Jo and HC really enjoyed their roll. I’m not sure I would eat it after a hangover though, usually I feel like throwing up at the sight of food.

The Imp is really one of those finds that you can’t wait to tell your other friends about, in fact, I told my coffee loving colleague A about it the next day. My ratings are only based on the breakfast, cakes and did I mention the delectable coffees? Is the weekend here yet? I’m ready for my coffee fix…

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 7/10

Service :6/10 (a bit of a hit and miss depending on which waiter/waitress you get)

The Imp
863 Albany Highway
East Victoria Park
(08) 9361 2600
http://www.theimp.com.au