2nd trip to Brisbane - Desserts

 I have been busy with work and completely forgot about blogging to it is time to get on track now. Let's see how many blog I can succeed in uploading today...cheers for me !!!

My second trip to Brisbane was filled food, food and more  food. Let's start with desert...which is not normally. Some of the best desserts I had during my trip, which is why I plumped up :)

The sticky date pudding served with honeycomb ice cream was simply irresistible, and my it was, because I ordered it from room service almost everyday. It is definitely a dessert to die for...

    The warm date pudding topped up with the freshly made Butterscoth Sauce, accompanied with a generous scoo[ of honeycomb ice cream.

I also made another visit to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, and had the waffle with chocolate ice cream. Again max Benner did not fail me. It is definitely a special place for chocoholics like me, and I believe anything you try there is simply superb. I wish there had one here.

Now, for the more Asian flavour, I had fried ice cream in a Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. It was simple, yet very nice. The distinct coconut bits really gave the kick to rather modest dish.

 I will post more about the different types of food I had in Brisbane, but for now savour this....cheers mates!!!

Authentic Persian Meal at Naab Restaurant

Again, courtesy of my 12 year old, we visited this restaurant. The story is, my son achieved 5 A's in his school exams and was rewarded by his aunt (my sis) with a Groupon voucher for a meal at Naab's.

So, another meal, courtesy of my dearest son.

Naab has a very nice ambiance, with soft middle eastern music playing in the background. and a very very friendly staff. They immediately served the three of us with drinks, even though, the coupon was for two. Hats off to them!!

Naab offers a wide variety of celebrated Iranian and Middle Easter cuisine. The lemonade, lightly spiced with mint leaves was very refreshing.

First we were served with Mirza Ghasemi, a mix of smoked eggplant and tomato, topped up with egg seasoned with garlic. You have to eat it with bread. At first, the combination of egg and the eggplant mash looked a little weird.Surprisingly, tt was a fresh, nice taste for our taste buds, and we enjoyed it all the way through.

We also had the Hummus Salad, also with hot bread. Yumm....

The Shirazi Salad was refreshing, with a slight hint of middle eastern spices, cumin maybe...

 

As we move on to the main course, the standard gets higher and higher. We had the Lamb Koobide Kebab, which was grilled marinated lamb, served with saffron rice. First, of all, the lamb was so tender, and well cooked, with all the right seasoning and flavour. The rice was fluffy, and fragrant.

We also had the Ghorme Sabzi Stew, chunks of lamb and chickpeas cooked in stew. It complimented the saffron rice.

For dessert, we had Baklava, a sweet pastry popular in Greece and the Middle East, consisting of multiple layers of butter-soaked phyllo pastry, spices and chopped nuts, a drizzled with sugar syrup and flavored rose water. And to top that off, we were served with Iranian tea, in cute little cups.

Beautiful restaurant, attentive staff and fantastic food....to sum it up..a wonderful evening!!

Spendid Thai Food in Bandar Puteri-Awet Thai

It was a special day, Mother's Day, and my son insisted that he "belanja" (treat) me for dinner on this day. So, we went to Bandar Puteri with the hope of finding a good Thai restaurant. We found this crowded restaurant, and you know, being Malaysian, we figured that somehow a restaurant that is packed must serve good food. Awet Thai, is a no frills restaurant in Bandar Puteri, Puchong.

Seafood Coconut Tomyam, we had was prepared really hot and sour here, definitely not for those who have a weak tolerance.It was  just the taste that suited the three of us. It was packed with prawns, fish and squid.

The staff told us the next dish, which I could not remember the name is their specialty so we decided to order. It was fried "siakap" (snapper) in a spicy gravy, which was appetizingly sourish. It was really good, and was something different from what we normally have. It came with extra gravy with such "umpph".

One of our family favourite dished is the deep fried "kangkung" (water spinach). The "kangkung" was crispy and was serve with a "mysterious" sauce (up till now I have no idea what it was), but satisfyingly delicious.

The last dish we had was the sambal petai, my favorite dish. The spiciness was just right, with medium size, fresh prawns, and it went so well, with the steaming hot rice.

Another interesting thing was , they served us with pandan water, in this very cute, silver cups.

As I said, Awet Thai is a no frills restaurant, but the food is definitely good. I would not mind a second trip. The best part of the day, was my 12 year old insisted on paying the bill, and the poor boy had only a 50 ringgit note, and needed his father to top up the rest :)

Food in Brisbane

Last month, I was in Brisbane for a business trip, and i had an option to savour at some of the finest restaurants in Brisbane. Western food in Australia is so different from back home, and the most distinguish feature it is portion of the meat they serve.

First up, is  Cha Cha Char Wine Bar & Grill, which is  is a stylish, contemporary restaurant in the heart of Brisbane. Everyone recommended us to visit the restaurant so we made sure we did.

Roasted & braised lamb, gorgonzola polenta, pear relish, mint salad was my dish of the day.A juicy  lamb served with polenta,  was cooked medium rare, and simply melts in your mouth. Polenta is coarsely or finely ground yellow or white cornmeal (ground maize) used as a foodstuff. It was my first time tasting it, but it tasted like mashed potato.

 This was on the house, an appetizer of Wagyu spring rolls with black pepper caramel. Since I don't take beef, I did not have  a taste at it. Of course, I did not lose the chance of getting a photo.

The above very interesting photo was the only halal option in the house- Wagyu tataki, garlic chips, spring onion, ginger soy vinaigrette. It looked very pretty, so I just had to get a photo.


I could not remember, the other restaurant that we visited, simply because it was not as good as the Char Char Char : )

I had this horrible looking tuna coated with black sesame seeds and bak choy. It looked interesting on the menu. though.

 
This was pretty picture also from the same restaurant. As pretty the picture, it did not taste as good. Thank god, I forgot the name of the restaurant !!!


Another very nice joint that we visit was Max Brenner, a creation of new chocolate culture. It was as if we were in chocolate fairyland...

Not enough...look at this...Yummm Yummm

Chocolate sundae with chocolate fudge, and chocolate brownie and chocolate balls.....how is that???

Chilli Pan Mee, Bandar Puteri

 It was wet and cold morning, and everyone wanted something fiery to spice up the taste buds, so we decided to go for chilli pan mee, at the Batu Road, Chilli Pan Mee in Bandar Puteri Puchong. The shop is located opposite the Public Bank.

The chilli pan mee here is served without the chillies, but there is a is a tub of fiery-looking chilli flakes on each table and you can add as much as you like. The pan mee is served with  mince pork, fried anchovies (ikan bilis), fried shallots, and poached egg, It is accompanied with  a bowl of soup with sweet potato leaves.

The service is super fast, and the servings are pretty reasonable. Taste wise, it may not be as good as Kin Kin's but I would say, it is fair good. The noodles were delightfully springy and amount and anchovies and minced meat were lots to coat up the noodles. Spice up with the chilly...yummm.yumm...but before of the aftereffects!! 

Ipoh Mali..Makan (Ipoh Food)

During the school holidays, we made short trip to Ipoh. Being northerners ourselves, we have been missing the food up north since we left Penang. So, all filled with gluttony, my son, hubby and I made this road trip....

The first day, we went for dinner to Tung Koo Ting(Medan Selera), opposite Woolly hawker's centre. We were welcomed with wonderfully scrumptious fare of different types of hawker delights.

Definitely one of the best Popiah(Spring Roll) that I have ever eaten. The Popiah skin was thin and nice, with the generous amount of filling, and topped up with the crunchiness of the dried shrimps, it was simply divine....

One more photo, just to show, how much I liked it!!

We also had the Hong Kong Chee Chong Fun, which had the option of either prawns, or char siew (cubed barbecued pork), or a combination of both.The Chee Cheong Fun is served in soy sauce and garnished liberally with fried shallots on top, giving it that extra fragrant and crunch. It was served with their own concocted ‘sambal belacan’ (spicy condiment made from pounded chillies, fermented shrimp paste, and a squeeze of lime),yum...yum...

For dessert, we had our favourite nyonya kuih-the kuih talam and pulut kaya.

The next day, we took our breakfast at coffee shop at Jalan Bukit Timah, Ipoh Old Town. A trip to Ipoh would not be complete without tasting the ever so famous Ipoh White Coffee. So, although we had our breakfast at the hotel (which was really a disappointment), we still ventured out to find more.

The coffee was good(kau-kau) for me, but most importantly, the caramel pudding here,  is to die for. I found the custard nice; wobbly, eggy and slippery smooth and the brown sugar syrup was just nice-not too sweet.

Since, we already had our breakfast, we could only stuff ourselves with a Popiah and the Chee Chong Fun(shared by the 3 of us).

On our way back to KL, we stopped by the one place that springs to our minds whenever we make a trip back up north, that is Pun Chun Restaurant. Highly acclaimed for their duck noodles, and yam puffs, this restaurant has been in operation since I was a small kid. Even back then, my dad will stop by here, whenever we make that Penang-Johor trip.

Their duck noodles remain as one of my favourite, though, I don't really like duck meat. Sad to say,the quality and quantity somehow dwindled over the years, and the price is escalating too. You get a whole drumstick that has been sufficiently marinated and roasted/fried, served with egg noodles (wantan mee-type), vegetables and lots of herbs in the soup, providing an aromatic, calming concoction of herbal goodness. Finish the soup with ease of mind, as no MSG is added, supposedly. NICE!!!

And head back to KL....Bye-bye to yummy hawker food!!

Souled Out, Hartamas

Last night, we went to Souled Out at Hartamas. We have been trying to go there for some time, but it somehow never happened. Well. it was a good thing that we finally made the trip. Souled Out is placed suitable for for friends and family to foster the spirit of friendship and togetherness. The vibe that I felt was  a  big happy family, which is great !. You would feel  comfortable and at home at Souled Out. In fact we had two kids and an infant in our group and we felt right at home!!

Now let's move on to the food....

We had the creamy carbonara fettuccine, which was simply delicious. The pasta was cooked al-dente, and the creaminess of sauce was simply perfect. Simple, light and yet satisfying.

My son had the lamb gosht from the North Indian kitchen, which was lamb cooked in spinach gravy.  It was served with pulau rice, cauliflower dish, pappadum and raita. The lamb was tender, flavourful and just melts in your mouth.

The lamb chop was also very nicely prepared. We asked for medium rare and we got ours cooked just as what we wanted. It was served with roasted veges with had the right amount of seasoning, and the black pepper sauce was not overpowering at all. To sum it up, it is definitely one of my favourite lamb dishes.

The salmon steak, was not to our liking, though, because we felt it was a little overcooked. 

Nevertheless, in general the food can be said as above average in standard and for the ambience, it was just perfect. The good note, of course is that, Souled Out has an all-embracing menu features which appeases both Eastern and Western palates.

So if you have a large family with different tastebuds...Souled Out is just the place you should go to !