Travel – Page 21

Brandy Creek Wines & View Cafe

September 14, 2011 Posted in Drouin East, Food, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish2 Comments

Brandy Creek Wines & View Cafe have been on many travel Melbourne shows for it’s pleasant scenery and of course, good food.

It has been shown on Postcards, a Melbourne TV travel and food show, a while back and I couldn’t catch it’s name. So I searched endlessly and gave up eventually. However, maybe a year or two later it was shown on Coxy’s Big Break, but I missed the name again. For some reason, I just ended up searching ‘Victoria Paella’ and Brandy Creek Wines shows up at the top.

Curious enough, I looked to see what they had, and the Paella Feast piqued my interest. We also had my parent’s anniversary coming up, so it was good timing.

Located in Drouin East, near Warragul, their Paella Feasts are quite an attraction. With 6 large bowls of 5 different styles of Paella, and one cazuella. You definitely get your monies worth here.

Outside you can see their beautiful vineyard. Although it was drizzling that day, it was nonetheless a pleasant viewing experience.

With their Paella Feasts, you are provided a selection of tapas. The golden brown potato tapas (Obvious I don’t know much about Spanish food isn’t it?) was fantastic. This was preapared by Head Chef Courtney Websdale.

Nice fresh bread to go along with the tapas.

Now for the main meal…This particular paella was made for Vegetarians. However, that’s not to say it was in anyway inferior. It didn’t need any meat to make it taste good. With all these fresh vegetables cooked with a tasty stock and nicely cooked rice, what could go wrong?

This Paella is a Photographer’s delight. Also a Pork lover’s delight too, might I add. Their Paella Cerdo y Conejo is a mix of succulent pork, rabbit and apple Paella, topped with amazingly crunchy crackling pork. I have nothing else to say about this one, it was fantastic, and also the first time I’ve eaten rabbit, which had a great flavour to it.

The Paella Machega is cooked with beef, mushroom, quail and egg. The beef was very tender and I can’t really fault it.

The Chicken & Chorizo Cazuella was probably my favourite one. Funnily enough, it isn’t a paella but tasted great nonetheless.

This had tender chicken, and spicy chorizo with saffron rice. The slightly salted chorizo combined with the tomato based sauced, it just appeals to the inner Italian in me.

The Paella de Marisco aka Seafood Paella, had all the great makings of a great seafood paella. Jam packed with fish, prawns, mussels, claims, calamari and baby octopus. It definitely was a seafood lover’s dish. For me it had an overpowering mussel flavour, only because I made my Seafood Risotto not long before this and that was packed full of mussels. So I definitely had my mussel fix by then, and of course I could only notice the mussel flavour here so although it wasn’t something I would go back for that day. I can’t ignore that it was well cooked and had great flavours to boot.

My selection of paella from the 6 dishes.

You also get a choice of three desserts. Since there were three of us, we managed to try them all!

This ice-cream was smooth and crunchy (from the honeycomb) and had a great caramel flavour to it. Delicious

These Spanish doughnuts can be found in a couple of Melbourne eateries now adays, and these crunchy little things were quite tasty I must admit. The chocolate sauce wasn’t too sweet like you can find in Spanish Doughnuts Churros franchises, and these churros have a higher crispy to dough ratio (because they are thinner) but it was really good.

This was probably my favourite dessert. Yes yes it’s just a panna cotta, but it was an (If I can recall correctly) an Vanilla Panna Cotta, with Candied Walnuts and an Orange sauce. It was simply silky smooth and tasted amazing.

Along with your desserts you get to sample their in-house liquers. They definitely go well with their desserts and I had to unfortunately lay the responsibility of designated driver onto my mother because who can resist free tastings of liquers.

To top it off you can order coffee or tea to end your fantastic meal.

Although their Paella Feasts are probably more on the pricey end, a great selection of paella (which you can go back for seconds or thirds, or even takeaway some too!), dessert, tapas, samples of their alcohol and warm drink to complete your meal. It definitely is worth it.

You will need to book for these as there are limited seats (I believe it houses 100) each weekend and they fill up quickly!

Also be warned, you will be satisfied.

Brandy Creek Wines & View Cafe

570 Buln Buln Rd
Drouin East, 3818
(03) 5625 4498

Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gâteau @ Le Petit Gateau

September 6, 2011 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Le Petit Gateau has definitely made a name for itself in Melbourne with it’s delicious cakes and chocolates. Their Brownie and Passionfruit Chocolate Gateau is an interesting combination of passionfruit, chocolate and their famous delicious mudcake praline all rolled into one.

I have got to say, Le Petit just don’t know how to make a bad dessert. Their passionfruit jelly on the top, along with a nice thin layer inside, as well as a delicious crunchy bottom. All the layers create such a wonderful taste in your mouth. Even if you tasted each layer separately it would have been perfect but together it’s just even better.

Only bad thing I can say is that their prices keep going up every year. It’s heading towards, ‘I don’t know if it’s worth it but I might still buy it anyway because it’s delicious’ pricing but alas I don’t think I would stop going to Le Petit Gateau. I’m hooked.

Le Petit Gateau

458 Little Collins St
Melbourne
Tel: 03 9944 8893
Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 7:30am-5pm

Koko at Crown

August 23, 2011 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Koko at Crown serves beautiful Japanese cuisine. Located a few floors above the famous Crown water fountains, and the Conservatory buffet restaurant. Koko would be considered slightly pricey but you definitely get your monies worth. Well we did anyway.

Their restaurant has a small water feature in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by the Teppanyaki grills and tables. We ordered their set Teppanyaki Lunch set menus, but you can also order a la carte, and for dinner there is a different albeit more expensive teppanyaki sets’ for everyone to choose from. We ordered the Seafood, and Beef sets and you are welcomed by the lovely staff and also greeted by the chef who will be cooking your meal. A lovely touch!

Each lunch set comes with appetisers and sashimi to start.

The special set comes with a warm egg pudding like entree. It was quite nice actually.

The vegetable tempura had a lovely thin but crispy batter, with the flavours of the vegetables still shining through.

We are also served miso soup, rice and then the real fire starts! I don’t know why I never took pictures of the actual chef cooking our meals but do have an image of the end result.

The three of us shared our sets so we could try a bit of everything. The beef was so soft and delicate, and packed full of flavour. The potatoes, mushrooms, spinach and bean sprouts all were delicious. I was definitely satisfied and full after all that.

Last but not least was the Green Tea ice-cream and that is always a winner for me.

Koko at Crown is definitely a great place to eat, I probably couldn’t afford to dine there regularly but it definitely will be on my list of great Melbourne restaurants to celebrate a special occassion. Great food, great atmosphere and great service.

Koko at Crown
Crown Towers
8 Whiteman St
Southbank, 3006
(03) 9292 6886

Sue’z Delights

August 16, 2011 Posted in Clayton, Food, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Sue’z Delights is a popular Clayton eatery on Dandenong Road because of it’s close proximity to Monash University. It also has nice food to boot.They serve a variety of Malaysian cuisines but their selection of dishes varies by day and by month so some dishes are only cooked on specific days or dates. Some dishes they cook are Mee Rebus, Char Hor Fun, Laksa, basically a big selection of the popular and sometimes not so common Malaysian dishes known in Australia today.

We ate there on a Sunday, the first Sunday of the month, and they had a couple of dishes on offer but I can’t remember the other ones. The one I ordered was their Nasi Briyani.

Their Nasi Briyani is a Indian/Malaysian dish served with salad, fried egg, fragrant rice, fried chicken and a sauce. Sue’z is run by a husband and wife team, and with the wife cooking most of these dishes so service and food delivery can be slow. Actually, it’s expected to be slow.

The Nasi Briyani is nice, it has all the flavours and added extras too, but the flavours aren’t as strong as I would have liked it to be. The rice didn’t pack a punch either but their runny egg was great. This dish is definitely cooked a different way then I am used to and there are many ways to cook Nasi Briyani so this is just one of them. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to order this but it’s still good.

Sue’z Delights also has a few snack boxes that you can order. These look like tiny curry puffs but they are filled with chopped peanuts and sugar. It was quite pleasant to eat, I might add.

Their also have a few drinks you can order, like Milo, but their Ice Cendol is what I was after. I would say their actual cendol was a bit hard, probably because it wasn’t freshly made and left in the fridge but it wasn’t bad. Also when had their cendol, their syrup mixture was too hot! So even with the ice, it was a mild room temperature dessert. With added ice, it would have been great. It had nice sweet flavours to it, and overall it was still something I would order again (provided I’m patient enough to wait)

Sue’z Delights serves authentic Malaysian cuisine and if you can stand the long wait, their food usually reaches expectations.

Sue’z Delights
1915 Dandenong Road
Clayton, VIC
3168
(03) 9548 8700

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant

August 9, 2011 Posted in Chinese, Food, Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant is a recent entry to the heart of Glen Waverley. Opening earlier this year, if my memory serves me correctly. There aren’t that many Chinese restaurants where you can have a nice dinner on Kingsway or near the train station. Maybe, the Hakka Teahouse across from Glen Waverley train station but the more the merrier I suppose.

It also isn’t a bad thing that the prices are reasonable for what they serve and well the last Chinese dinner I had was at Eastern Palace in Rowville, and the bill left an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

We orderd a fish and tofu dish for dinner and it had a nice taste to it, with cooked but crunchy carrots, vegetables and mushrooms. Overall it was quite pleasant. Nothing really to run home about, it basically is the standard flavours you may find in your typical Chinese restaurant.
We also ordered another vegetable dish (Kai Lan with beef), and that was great but I didn’t managed to take a picture of it. Not that it was picture worthy anyway since it was quite simple, but I love kai lan so we had to order it.

However, this prawn dish was the standout. The prawns are covered in a salted egg batter and my golly was it something special. It had a great saltiness to the prawns, but the prawn flavour wasn’t overpowered by the salted egg batter. The batter thinly covered the whole prawn, and was light and crisp, and definitely not heavy that you feel you’re eating a great deal of oil. I think I would go back here just to order this delicious and surprisngly delightful dish again.

I would probably only come here on special occassions though since if you eat regularly here, it would take quite a big chunk out of your food budget!

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant
100 Kingsway
Glen Waverley, 3150
(03) 9562 2688

Khe Sanh

July 30, 2011 Posted in Chinese, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews, Springvale, Vietnamese1 Comment

Khe Sanh has recently had a management change and renewed some interest into this long standing restaurant.

Originally opened in 2001, it has changed hands I believe late last year and serves a variety of Vietnamese, Chinese and Malaysian style food.

Khe Sanh is located in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne and with so many eateries around Springvale, it definitely is hard to compete. Although, tastes are what matters.

I ordered the Nasi Lemak, and surprisingly it was quite nice. I recently became a Nasi Lemak fan after having it constantly when I vacationed in Malaysia. You’d think I’d get sick of it already, but interestingly enough I now keep wanting to try every restaurant’s Nasi Lemak.

This Nasi Lemak had all the ingredients, the egg, peanuts, anchovies, sambal, beef curry and coconut rice. What I was surprised by was the preserved vegetable which although I’ve been served before, I didn’t intend on eating it. This time, I gave it a try and it was actually decent but I’m not a big fan of cold vegetables so I wouldn’t be annoyed if it wasn’t on my plate.

The combination of flavours worked quite well together, and the curry whilst a tad too sweet, was flavourful and slightly spicy so it did its job.

Overall, for the price, it was actually a pleasant meal and I have nothing really bad to say about it.

My parents ate these two wonderful looking dishes, Chicken stir-fry and the Crispy chicken (or pork, I can’t remember). Try the crispy chicken, or whatever it was called, it had a really nice taste to it.

I would definitely come back to Khe Sanh if I was wanting to eat around Springvale, but I don’t regularly eat there since Glen Waverley’s variety of restaurants satisfies me. I give it my thumbs up!

Khe Sanh
792 – 806 Heatherton Road
Springvale South
(03) 9540 3017

Papparoti

July 11, 2011 Posted in Glen Waverley, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

PappaRoti is a popular franchise/bakery in Malaysia. Probably not as popular as RotiBoy but still these Mexican buns are sold in many shopping centres in Malaysia and now we have a couple of stores down here in Melbourne. The first one I’ve seen to pop up was on Kingsway, Glen Waverley but there is also another one that recently opened on Elizabeth St (Across from Melbourne Central) in the Melbourne CBD.

These buns have a sweet crunchy crust on top, and you can smell these buns baking in the ovens far away. The crust I believe has a coffee taste to it but it’s more delicate. It’s sweet, but that’s a good thing since it stops you from having too many!

Inside they place some butter before they are cooked, so when it’s done. The inside is nice and soft, with a rich butter texture to it. It’s actually quite nice but you definitely can’t have too many.

Compared to RotiBoy’s variety of buns, who sell these buns with butter, cream cheese and blueberry cream cheese, Papparoti only sells this one particular bun with butter. The store in Glen Waverley also sells coffee and ice cream but I haven’t taste tested them yet. I might try their ice cream once this winter finally passes.

Not everyone will like these buns, and for me personally, I’ve had my fair share for the year, but definitely try it because you just might like it!

Their ice-cream selection is actually quite decent. They have the usuals like Rum & Raisin, Strawberry Jam, but then they venture into the Asian favourites like Durian, Black Sesame, Lychee and Red Bean.

I tried Lychee and Black Sesame on my first go, and whilst the Black Sesame was too sweet and lacked the nice bitterness of black sesame, the lychee was an instant favourite. It had an authentic lychee flavour and was smooth and creamy. I haven’t seen many places that sell Lychee ice-cream, and one that tastes good too, so whenever I’m feeling like a cold treat (nearly always) this will be the first place I visit.

PappaRoti

105 Kingsway,
Glen Waverley. VIC

Mon-Thur: 9am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 9am-Late
Sunday: 10am-9pm

Gânache Chocolate Macarons

June 28, 2011 Posted in Confectionery, Food Reviews, Melbourne1 Comment

I’m just such a sucker for macarons. I just love how creative people can be with them and the many different flavours and combinations that can be made with them. I recently came across Gânache Chocolate on Collins St, close to the corner of Collins and Swanston. I didn’t get to try their chocolates, and their cakes look really appetising but I wasn’t in the mood at the time. I think they only recently opened and by recently as in within a year but I can’t be too sure.

Macarons, however, I will always snap up that opportunity. There were 6 flavours to choose from but I can’t really remember them all that well. From memory, there was Passionfruit, Hazelnut, Coffee, Chocolate, Vanilla and Blueberry variations.

I picked up the Passionfruit, Hazelnut and Coffee and they all had quite a good taste and texture and just how I like them to be.

The Passionfruit Macaron, I’d prefer a jam of sorts for the filling but of course, I was at a chocolatier, and what else are they famous for? It was still really fresh and just had a nice balance between the creamy texture of the chocolate with the crunch and chewiness of the shell.

Similarly, the hazelnut and coffee ones were just as good and being know for their chocolates, of course the chocolate taste would stand out! Definitely one of the better servings in the CBD.

I’m going to go see their cakes and chocolates next time I’m around there so be on the look out for that post in the future.

Gânache Chocolate

245 Collins St,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Tel/Fax: 03 9650 8388

Mon – Thurs: 8am – 8pm
Fri: 8am – 10pm
Sat: 9am – 10pm
Sun: 9am – 6pm

They also have a store in South Yarra, check out their website for details on the address of that one.

Crisp Lemon Tart @ Le Petit Gateau

June 22, 2011 Posted in Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

Le Petit Gateau is a small well known patisserie on Lt. Collins St in Melbourne.

As I’ve mentioned before, their macarons are really good but what they are known for is their delicious cakes. Their Praline Mud Cake is a definite must try so please go visit this shop when you have the chance, and despite their need to increase prices nearly every year, I think it’s still worth it.

Their Crisp Lemon Tart is only available in one size, unlike the other cakes. I’ve always had a liking for lemon because of it’s sour, acidic taste and combined with sweet desserts, it’s the perfect combination.

I actually bought this for my birthday because of my love of lemons. If you were old enough to watch Rugrats as a child, I will always remember this one part where they made lemonade and it made their face all scrunchy. Haha.

Back to the tart though. The pastry is unbelievably good. It’s just so delicate, but filled with flavour and the lemon curd is both sweet and tangy. Just how I like it! It is covered with a nice glaze of some sort, but I’m no expert as to what that’s called but it adds another layer to it.

One thing that might be of concern is that you can’t save it in the fridge! Or my fridge just adds too much moisture to it and makes the pastry too wet and the bite and crunch of the base disappears. So it’s unfortunate I couldn’t savour the taste for many days.

Overall, it’s one of the best lemon tarts out there and Le Petit Gateau just make top quality, delicious products that everyone with even a slight sweet tooth will love.

Le Petit Gateau

458 Little Collins St
Melbourne
Tel: 03 9944 8893
Opening Hours

Monday to Friday, 7:30am-5pm

Little Cupcakes

June 17, 2011 Posted in Baking, Confectionery, Food Reviews, MelbourneLeave a comment

Little Cupcakes is a famous Melbourne bakery, dedicated to cupcakes, as expected by its name. It’s been on Postcards, and it definitely has gathered quite a following for those wanting a cute and celebratory birthday cake in the form of cupcakes. Located in one of Melbourne’s most popular laneways, Degraves St, and close to Flinders St station, it is conveniently located and that just might be a bad thing as you’ll definitely be coming back for more.

One of the best things about Little Cupcakes, is its tiny bite sized cupcakes, that are almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

This bakery has a wide selection of flavours, ranging from the decadent chocolate cakes, to the lighter lemon and vanilla cupcakes, and for those veggie lovers, a carrot cake.

This one above was the Mocha (I believe), and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the cupcake itself. The icing on top for me anyway was a tad too sweet but it had had a nice hint of coffee, I would have liked it to have a bigger punch though. What I absolutely loved about the chocolate mud cake cupcakes, is how moist they are. It’s not too heavy, it’s fluffy and just nicely melts in your mouth without the dryness of most mud cakes I’ve eaten.

The Lemon cupcake, is a classic butter cake with a lemon frosting. I must admit, I’m a fan of all things lemon flavoured, but it has to taste like a lemon with the sweet, acidity and sourness that a lemon is. So it’s always disappointing to have a lemon frosting reduced to pure sugary sweetness, and makes the lemon taste almost fake. Unfortunately, this was what it was like, and the butter cake was quite dry too so it wasn’t a great one to be honest. I do hope I just got a bad egg.

The Cream Latte one is quite similar to the Mocha cupcake, and again the cake is just so moist. It’s really quite the delicious tasting experience, topped with a nice coffe and cream frosting. It’s just a pleasant cupcake to eat.

I love my cookies and cream ice cream, and so I was hoping the taste of that would translate into a nice frosting. Was slightly disappointed it lacked the creaminess and cookie crunch of cookies and cream, and lacked a bit of that flavour too. It was mostly sweet, but again the cake was deliciously moist.

This buttercake may have been from the same batch as the lemon one, the strawberry frosting on the other hand, was quite pleasant and you could taste an authentic strawberry flavour so even if the cake was dry, it was made up nicely by the sugary creaminess of the frosting.

This was a Belgian Chocolate cupcake, with a moist chocolate cake and topped with a dark belgian chocolate frosting. It was quite good to be honest. Usually I’m not a fan of chocolate on chocolate desserts as it’s just a chocolate overload but the frosting wasn’t overly sweet, it had a nice smooth and silky texture and taste to it. Plus it had an excellent moist cake base, so it was a real winner.

I saved the best for last. This Red Velvet cupcake, consists of a cocoa butter cake with a cream cheese frosting, and my oh my was this good. As you probably noticed, I’m not a real fan of just sugar overload, I do like balance and this Red Velvet little cupcake delivers.

The cake itself was moist, maybe not as moist as the chocolate counterparts but definitely nicer then the butter cakes on offer. It wasn’t too sweet either, and the cream cheese frosting was just pure goodness. It also wasn’t half as sweet as the frostings on the other cupcakes I tried, it had a nice creaminess to it and was just what I wanted in a cupcake. A cupcake that isn’t too sweet, moist, and has a nice texture and taste to boot. It also looked great. I definitely would go back for these, and they seemed quite popular too as when we went there, we took the last one available.

Little Cupcakes

Shop 7 Degraves St
Melbourne
VIC 3000
03 9077 0413

Mon-Fri 8.30am – 5.30pm
Sat-Sun 9.30am – 5.30pm

There are also stores on William St and Queen St (Closed on weekends), check out their website for further details.

ohdenny

Category: Travel