Grigons & Orr

Hidden away in north Melbourne, nestled in the corner of a street is Grigons & Orrs. This cafe is one of my all time favourite places to visit when I just want to hide away, settle in with a good book and enjoy a good cup of coffee. The interior of the Grigons & Orr kinda reminds me of an Asian convenience store that they have back home in Malaysia. When you first walked in, you'll see shelves stacked all the way up to the ceiling, selling everyday goods such as pastas, baked beans in cans, wasabi and a whole lot of random stuff one can think of. The cutest thing is they actually do sell whatever on display so if you are ever running out of milk or oil, you can just pick them up from the cafe, talk about convenience!

The cafe itself is really small, fitting only 4 tables inside with a coffee counter displaying different lollies and pastries. Perfectly baked shaped scones, cupcakes covered with rich smooth icing, man they are so hard to resist! There are more seats outside the cafe and one thing which I find real sweet of them is that they have nice cosy quilt lay out for customers to just snuggle in on a cold day.

Having been there a couple of times, I am loving their coffees! They seem to have a variety of juices as well but I have yet to try them, definitely will in the near future. So below are the coffees I've had. One of my favourite would be their hot chocolate cause they come with marshmallows as well xD a playful touch on a classic drink which I really love.

Hot Chocolate with marshmallows

latte

Cappuccino

Mocha

Besides their coffees, they do breakfast and lunch as well. So far I've tried their steak sandwich which consists of a grilled rib eye steak serve in a warm ciabatta roll with rocket, aioli and Dijon mustard. The steak was cooked medium-well done but it wasn't tough and dry, instead the meat was juicy and it went well with the Dijon mustard and aioli. I have also tried their BLT which is essentially bacon, lettuce and oven dried tomatoes with aioli and tomato jam on toast. It's simplicity at its best but I would recommend trying other dishes that are available on the menu. What used to be my ultimate favourite is their tofu steak served in a bed of sauteed Spanish and mushrooms with balsamic glazed. Unfortunately they changed their menu and they no longer serve it, I was so sad when I found out! But the new dish on the menu which is their pork sandwich is now my new favourite dish! It is slow cooked pork shoulder serve with capers, anchovies, aoili and garlic butter. I took Chian Woon there for lunch after uni and we both tried it. The first thing Chian Woon pointed out was that she could see chunks and chunks of whole roasted garlic in the garlic butter which she just loved. When we pop it into out mouth, it literally dissolve together with the anchovies and aoili. The pork shoulder was braised to perfection and just melts in our mouth as well. Guys, you just HAVE to try it to understand what I am talking about ;) One of the cakes that is often displayed on the counter is their passion fruit curd cheesecake and it is delicious! Beautiful texture and not too sweet, just right for the pallet to end a wonderful lunch.



BLT





Steak Sandwich





Tofu Steak ~R.I.P~





Pork Sandwich





Passion fruit Curd Cheesecake



I would advise going early in the weekend if you want a seat cause they don't take reservation and it tends to get quite pack due to the limited amount of space. But yes, I hope you guys will enjoy Grigons & Orr as much as I did :).

Chicken Paprika

As I was doing my usual grocery shopping at Woolworths I came across Margaret Fulton's chicken paprika recipe. It looks simple enough that I decided to try the recipe out. The result was very satisfying indeed although I would suggest the next time I make this dish again I would put less sour cream. I tend to hate cooking with drumsticks cause I find it hard to cook them well but this dish was easy and the chicken was cooked to perfection. One thing about this dish, its called chicken paprika but there wasn't much paprika flavour at all so maybe next time I would add more paprika to enhance that flavour that we are expecting.

Ingredients
8 Chicken drumsticks
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
15g unsalted butter
1 large onion, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp of sweet or hot paprika
1 tbsp flour
1 1/4 (310ml) of chicken stock
1 red capsicum, seeded and cut into thick strips
2 large tomatoes, diced
1/4 chopped parsley
300ml light sour cream
1 cup of basmati rice (or basically any rice of your choice)

 Method

1) Remove excess fat from the chicken pieces. Pat the chicken drumsticks dry with a paper towel and season it with a little salt.

2) Heat oil and butter in a large heavy-based flameproof casserole dish on medium high. Brown chicken in batches for 2-3 minutes each side. Remove from pan and set aside.

3) Reduce heat to medium and cook onion and garlic for 5 minutes, stirring until softened. Add paprika and flour and stir until combined, taking care not to burn. Add stock and stir until simmering. Return chicken to pan. Add capsicum and tomato with half of the chopped parsley and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes until chicken is tender.

4) Stir in sour cream (or serve separately) and remaining parsley, season to taste and serve with rice.

And sooooo the finish product!

...

Naked For Satan

Scanning through urbanspoon, the word 'naked' and 'satan' would always stand out like a sore thumb so finally I admitted defeat and dragged Nic and Sasa to be my partners in crime as we headed of to Naked for Satan. Now Naked for Satan actually started as a bar and is famous for their infused vodka. Naturally the 3 of us took a quick scan of the menu and ordered 3 delightful cocktails at 2pm on a Friday afternoon, yeaaaap, it's fridayyy fridayyyy, great way to start the weekend I might add ;)

Can't really remember what I had but I think mine was a melon vodka mixture whilst sasa had a citrus melon vodka mixture? and Nic just had an everything vodka mixture hahaha if I ever do go back to Naked for Satan I would definitely take down their menu and to put down the actual name of the cocktail we ordered BUT in conclusion, all 3 cocktails were spectacular! Craving for one now as I type on...

Now on to the most exciting bit! Zee food! Naked for Satan are famous for Pintxos which are toothpicks holding different ingredients together and is on a piece of bread. Pintxoz actually makes really good pub food, bite-sized snacks that would go very well with any beer of cocktails. All pintxos are 80 cents each on a weekday afternoon starting from 12 to 4pm plus mon to wed night till late so they are really really cheap! cheap food = awesome! Other times it would be 2 dollars a stick. We were so hungry that when we got there that we basically charged and attacked the pintxos table. Me and Nic planned to try every stick they have on the table but we totally underestimated those little sticks cause they fill you up rather quickly! Evil evil little sticks!

There were a range of selections to choose from. Plus they change their pintxos menu constantly so you don't get the same selections everyday. These were the selections that were available when I went.

Smoked salmon & pickled onions : This wasn't spectacular with the slice of salmon being very thin.

Gilda: olives, pickled chillis & anchovy: Didn't try this one cause I'm not an olive fan

Chorizo, cream cheese & green chilli: This was good and the green chilli wasn't spicy at all.

Balsamic caramelised pear & cream cheese: My ultimate FAVOURITE! the combination was amazing!

Eggplant chip, blue cheese & honey: The bluecheese was quite overpowering

Blueberry casis canoli: Canoli was quite hard and the blueberry flavour wasn't strong enough

Cauliflower, manouri cheese & garlic prawns: This was good, fresh garlic prawns

Grilled veg salad & balsamic glaze: Didn't try this

Artichoke, goat's gouda & tapenade: Didn't try this

Pissaladiere: onions, anchovy & olives: Didn't try this

Octopus, chickpea & caperberry: This would probably be my second favourite, combination was yum!

Ham, terrine & dijonnaise: Didn't try this

Spicy Sopressa: Didn't try this

Scallop, peas and cherry tomato: The scallop was cold and the flavour didn't come through that well

Tortilla with aioli: -Riceball, creamcheese & quince paste: Probably their signature pintxos. It was delightful

Carrot & garlic field mushrooms: Sasa and Nic's fav, the carrot puree goes so well with the mushrooms!

Overall, we really enjoyed our trip to Naked for Satan, great cocktails and cheap food, we were all smiles when we left the place with our very VERY satisfied stomach. Would definitely come back to have more cocktail and pintxos! Highly recommended!

Naked For Satan on Urbanspoon

Gurney Drive

Not to be mistaken with the actual Gurney Drive in Penang, Malaysia, Gurney Drive is a Penang-style  restaurant based in west Melbourne. When catching up with my aunt, she suggested that we try it out, just to see if it does our local food justice. Sad to say that it didn't :( Their service was slow with only one people working on the night. Their food was alright but it wasn't good enough to make me wanna go back.

We started of with some spring roles. It wasn't the authentic Penang style spring roles where you dip them in a vinegar sweet sauce ish, it was just the normal ones with sweet chili sauce. Nicely wrapped and fried tho.

We ordered a variety of mains to share amongst ourselves. We had their tom yam noodles, wa tan hor, roti canai with chicken curry and their famous nonya style fish fillets. The noodles that came with the tom yam was not cooked properly and the tom yam soup itself wasn't very flavoursome. Same goes to the wa tan hor, would like it to be more seasoned. The chicken curry that came with the roti canai was good but the roti itself was flat and uncrisp. The nonya fish fillet on the other hand was really good, it came with some green beans which really complimented the dish, plus it wasn't very spicy.

Overall, the food was alright, not one of the best Malaysian restaurant Melbourne has to offer. The food served lack seasoning but I would definitely recommend their nonya styled fish fillet.

Earl Canteen

Earl canteen has been the talk of the town for quite sometime now, and I've always wanted to try it out. Having not caught up for a very long time, Piek Chea decided we should have lunch together and we both agreed to head off to Earls. Yippie! finally I got to try their food and we weren't disappointed one bit!

Situated behind an office building, it has a relaxing environmental feel, together with a few more other cafes and restaurants, it is quite isolated which I think is great. I can see that most of the customers here are working people on their lunch break. A place to get their mind off daily stress and work and to just enjoy good food and a cup of coffee, even if its just an hour :) Makes it all the more reason to enjoy it! It was great seeing Peik Chea after not seeing her for almost half a year. We choose to sit outside, taking advantage of the glorious warm day which we rarely get during winter.



Look who decided to drop by?



While scanning through the menu, we were told that their signature pork belly baguette has been sold out. I decided to have their duck confit which has duck confit, caramelised figs, walnuts, onion jam, radicchio and watercress serve in ciabatta. Oh man, it was soooooo good! They were very generous with the duck confit which I was very please and the sweetness of the caramelised figs and the onion jam just brought the whole dish together. The texture of the walnut gave the dish a crunch texture and with the radicchio and watercress just makes it such a beautiful dish. Highly recommended! 

Peik Chea ordered their Mushroom and goats' curd which consists of roast field mushrooms, goats' curd, pesto, chestnuts and rocket, served with ciabatta as well. The mushrooms were roast to perfection and very juicy, plus the amount of pesto in the ciabatta was beautiful. The goats' curd was good as well, not too salty although they might have put abit too much of them. Overall it was a beautiful dish.

I have heard that their macarons weren't very consistent so we were doubtful whether or not we should get some to try. There were only 2 flavours that were available, their salted caramel and their earl grey tea flavoured macaron. Having tried a fair share of macarons, earl grey was quite new to both us hence we decided to try it. Oh man, the macarons were delightful! not only was the texture spot on, the flavour was great, with just a hint of earl grey tea in there, it was just what we need to finish our beautiful lunch.

Overall, we enjoyed the food very much and most importantly the company It was great catching up with you Peik Chea! I'm sure we would have many more lunch dates to come ;)

EARL Canteen on Urbanspoon

Chocolate Indulgence with the people you love

Happy birthday my dearest Jiamin!

well, technically it was last friday, but awww my little food buddy has hit the big TWOZERO! I know she has been bugging me to go for high tea in a while now but we just never got round to it because high tea can be very expansive, but on her birthday we decided we just had to go! Once a year hahahaha, we shall see about that ;)

So we choose to go to the Langham hotel's Aria. Their signature Langham Tiffin afternoon tea and the Chocolate indulgence afternoon tea are an ARIA tradition, popular with Melbournians and visitors. They have 2 selections on their menus. First the Tiffin afternoon tea set which serves a traditional three tiered silver stand including scones with chantilly cream and preserve and twists on old English favourites. Served with leaf tea, espresso coffee or hot chocolate. The other, which is the Chocolate Indulgence afternoon tea is like the Tiffin afternoon tea, but with an extra selection of delectable chocolate treats that will satisfy the strongest of chocolate cravings.

We choose the chocolate indulgence set and started off straight away by ordering some tea. They have a huge variety of exotic teas. Dari had their apple tree which has a delicate clean refreshing finish with a vitamin c boost for health. The colour of the tea was an attractive pink and it smelled lovely. Same goes to Jiamins'. She had a greentea and also berry green which has a subtle palette of raspberry, strawberry and red currents. The tea smelled lovely but when you actually drink it, it tasted just like any normal tea. I had their latte but as the day progress I eventually tried their cappuccino, chai latte and this flavoured tea called tea party which is a rooibos tea enhanced with the elegance of rose petals. It was delightful indeed. Dari also tried their White Rose which was a potent dose of anti oxidant which is slightly sweet to the pallete.

Now on to the food! As stated above, it was served in a three tiered silver stand. Starting from the bottom stand, it was a delightful selections of sandwiches. The sandwiches that was served were smoked salmon, cucumber ribbon, egg mayo & cress and cream cheese &chives. My favourite would be the smoked salmon, fresh and made delicately.

The second stand consisted of scones served with jam, butter and clotted cream. There were 2 types of scones, plain ones and  chocolate chipped scones. The texture was lovely but the shape was abit wonky and those scones were so filling! Dari absolutely adored the cream, they were whipped well and the taste wasn't too strong, goes with the scones perfectly.

Now on to the final plate, the little dessert bites which consisted of valrhona chocolate and malibu souffle, lime and bitter trifle, jaffa chocolate torte, chocolate truffle marquise, strawberry chocolate vacherin & elderflower cream, and last but not least, amarascataroulade with cocoa nibs. By the end of these, I could honestly say, death by chocolate literally. My favourite would probably be the jaffa chocolate torte, the sweetness of the orange and the bitterness of the chocolate are match made in heaven indeed with a little layer of orange jelly in the bottom. I wanted more of those! The lime and bitter trifle was something new, but I would say it was abit too sour for our taste buds.



Overall the experience was delightful, we finally had our first high tea experience! I'd say the price wasn't really worth it, although the food and drinks were free flow but we were pretty much full when we finished the first servings. Definitely because of the scones. But catching up on old times and just talking was great, I have missed you girls :) and like I've stated, chocolate indulgence with the ones you love, priceless.

Seven Seeds

I first found out about Seven Seeds through my food chem lecturer. As a coffee lover, she highly recommended theirs so me and Chian Woon decided we just had to go there and try their coffee. My fondness for hidden alleyway cafes was yet again being fullfield cause it doesn't get any hidden then this. When Nicole brought me there I was like....no way...I would never have found this place!

Walking in, the place hits me with a rustic chill urban style feel which I really enjoy, the smell of freshly brewed coffee instantly fills up your senses, reminding you why you're here in the first place. Me and Nic decided to grabbed a coffee and just some quick bites to munch on. I had a flatwhite whilst Nic decided on their hot chocolate. Now Seven Seeds are really famous for their hot chocolate, rich and dark, oh boy it was authentic bitter sweet dark chocolate that just slides down your throat and just makes you close your eyes and just feel. Feel and savour the chocolate, its just one of those little things that just makes life wonderful. We were told that it usually comes with a chocolate stick that melts into the hot chocolate but they were out of it :( ah well, all the more reasons to come back for more :p



There were selections of little treats and bites on the counter. Man so seductive, I could just hear them going :" come onnnnn~~ you know you want someeee~~" You bet I do. So I chose a little carrot cake. When I bit into it, I was glad to find that it wasn't very sweet, with chunks of walnut in there and little carrot bits. The texture was light and crumbly, and the little knob of cream cheese on the top just seals it perfectly. Nic had this meringue muffin sorta? haha its funny, Nic calls it a hybrid muffin. The outer layer was a crunchy meringue but when you bite into it, it has a crumbly muffin to it. I would say it's sorta like a macaron feel? but just the fact that it has an inner muffin like feel just make me go "?!?!?". But man it was gooooooooooood! I highly recommend people to try it, something new and foreign for the tastebuds ;)



*left* hybrid muffin xD *right* carrotcake muffin





Besides those I've also tried their chai latte. It has an earthy spicy taste to it. The flavours weren't very strong but it just has this little kick to it? I liked it but it wasn't my favourite. Their coffee in the other hand was delightful. I could just see me going there everyday to get my daily dose of coffee, how fortunate that the place is just a 3 minutes walk away.



*left* chai latte *right* flatwhite



Besides coffee and cakes, they do serve main dishes as well which looks really delightful and healthy, maybe I'll try them out soon, probably with my mum soon, I know she would just love this place! At the mean time, can't wait till tomorrow so I have an excuse to grab more coffee!

Seven Seeds on Urbanspoon