Café Explorer│FourAteFive

Hi foodie friends! 

It's been a looonnng time since my last post (mostly due to uni stresses) but nothing's better than some good food to remind me of the good things in life! Eggs has been my favourite breakfast food for as long as I can remember and FourAteFive really impressed me with their eggs! Situated in the heart of brunch paradise (Surry Hills) it's one of the most relaxed and I had a really great experience there! 

♥

As always food first! 

Smoked Salmon Stack!

So my friend and I visited on a quite sunny Friday morning for some brunch and I ordered the Smoked Salmon Stack ($18) which had salmon, avocado and ricotta on sourdough topped w/ poached eggs & parsley. A wonderful combination of all the foods that make me happy! The combination of salmon and avocado is always a winner and of course the egg was poached to perfection! 

Baked Eggs

This was the Moroccan style Baked Eggs ($17) with almonds, organic fetta & sourdough toast! A wonderful combination of spices with baked eggs (oh eggs you are so versatile!). I really enjoyed the strong punch and difference in flavour but the tomato taste can be a little overwhelming. Luckily the sourdough toast balanced out the flavours. 

As always I got myself a Mocha ($4) and my friend got Short Black ($3). The coffee was great, very smooth taste and I only wish I got a large size. 

Read more for the full review:

Café Explorer │Blue Bird Coffee

HI FRIENDS!

It has been A WHILEEEE since my last post! And man I missed blogging!! I’ve been to so many interesting food places and the pictures are just waiting to be edited and the posts waiting to be written. So this is just a short post about one of my recent favourite cafes while I prepare a MEGA MELBOURNE recap post – STAY TUNED for that! 

Blue Bird Coffee is a relatively new addition to the regent square family that has become a new hub for Asian food and I’m really loving the coffee there! I’ve visited several times and I really need to try the different beans they have available but anyway onto the exploration!

♣

Green Tea Latte part 1

So the first time I tried Blue Bird Coffee I tried the Green Tea latte ($3.80) and it soon became one of my favourite drinks from Blue Bird!! It wasn’t too milky and still had the flavour of Matcha which is what I really love! 

Green tea latte part 2

Yep, I definitely went back and got the Green Tea latte again! Yummm! Always a favourite! But the second time it was very different and the green tea flavour was much stronger but that’s ok I enjoyed it none the less!

This is the Cafe Latte ($3.50) which my friend Cathy had and it was a very smooth plus the coffee art is totally soo cute!! 

Nutella Muffin

Also we tried the Nutella Muffin and this quickly became a favourite as well! Very very sweet muffin with a nutella filled center at the top and icing sugar! A great choice for afternoon tea! It was very moist and soft which is exactly how I like my muffins to be – YAYYY! 

Mocha

The third time I went to Blue Bird I finally tried the Mocha ($4) and it was definitely how I liked it! Not too much chocolate but enough to sweeten the coffee and smooth enough for me to enjoy while still retaining the coffee taste! Plus the little biscuit that was included was very yummy as well! 

Mocha and Affogato

I also tried the Affogato ($4) which is not my regular type of coffee but it features a scoop of vanilla ice cream which added the sweetness that I like! But because there was no milk the espresso taste was much stronger than I expected. Just a note – if you mixed the ice cream and the espresso shot together it just tastes like Coffee flavoured ice cream! 

Read more for the review:

Café Explorer │Bills

Hi friends,

It's been soo long since my last Cafe explorer post! But I was very blessed with a fun Sunday brunch at Bills with a few of my favourite girls a couple of weeks ago! I've been wanting to try Bills for the longest time as it's very well known among Japanese tourists (it's one of their must visit cafes) so it was definitely a great experience!

♣

So on to the food!

Hotcakes! 

The Ricotta Hot cakes with banana and honeycomb butter ($20)! What all of the tourists and everyone that comes to Bills MUST TRY! Fluffy and soft hotcakes that are warm and topped with syrup - what more can you ask for?? Well I guess I would have asked for more hotcakes! It was very sweet but definitely worth a try! 

Full Aussie breakfast! 

Next was the full aussie with scrambled organic eggs,  sourdough toast, bacon, cumin roast tomato, miso mushrooms, pork and fennel sausage ($24.50). I really liked the pork and fennel sausage because I love the smell and taste of fennel! Yumm! And of course you can't go wrong with bacon and eggs! 

Scrambled Egg

There is never enough egg! Which is why we also got the scrambled organic eggs and sourdough toast ($14.50)! The egg was really light and soft combined with the toast made a really light breakfast. But again I wish there was more! 

Fruit and Bran Muffin

All this food and it still wasn't enough so we also got a fruit and bran muffins ($4.50) which was a bit too dry for my taste but it had a good crunchy texture and I liked the coconut flakes on the top! 

Two Mochas

Of course what's a cafe explorer post without COFFEE! As always I got my usual Mocha ($3.9) and I really enjoyed the coffee! Would go back just for the coffee!

Read more for the full review! 

Food Adventure - Surry Hills Edition

SURRY HILLS - a suburb of Cafe and food heaven! Recently I've been spending a lot of my time in this wonderful place and slowly I'm falling in love! I would LOVE to live here actually...but then again I spend so much time here it's as if I live here!

So here's a little list of the wonderful places in Surry Hills that I've tried/reviewed & the ones I want to try sooo badly! There are so many hidden places in this foodie suburb!

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• Devon Cafe: Even though I've already been and blogged about this cafe, their menu keeps changing! And now they're opened for DINNER! All I want to do is visit them again!

• Bourke Street Bakery: It's my regular place (literally I'm there pretty much every single day now) and I'm so excited to get my blog posts up about this amazing bakery! 

•  Four Ate Five: One of my favourite food in the universe is EGG! And man this cafe knows how to do amazing eggs! Post coming up soon!

•  The Book Kitchen: love the wonderful ambience of this cafe, it's the most perfect place to sit and have a read of a book. Cannot wait to try the food in this cafe!

•  Mad Spuds: It's winter and it's cold so it's the best time to get some carb on! What's a better way to do that then get some potatoes yumm

• Rustic Pearl: I love how the cafe is tag line is food for the soul! And man the food looks amazing!

• El Loco: I've always wanted to eat here!! Mexican food is amazing!!

• Bills: AMAZING HOTCAKES! My blog post about Bills will be coming up soon!

• Chur Burger: DELICIOUS DELICIOUS DELICIOUS! Cheap and wonderfully tasty burgers that always hit the spot! 

• The Paramount Coffee Project: This has been on my to visit list for EVER! And I'm determine to go this holidays! 

• KOKO: This is a really beautifully decorated cafe that I walk pass every day as I head to my work experience and man I want to try coffee there! 

• Reuben Hill: I've been to this cafe once but it was sooo long ago and I love the eggs there! Plus the milk shake was amazing! 

• Le Monde: This is another one that I've been dying to try for the delicious instagram pictures that I've seen! The food looks so delicious!

• MoVida: Finally I found out where Movida was located in Surry Hills! And boy I want to try the Wagyu there so badly! Especially since I missed out in Melbourne! *boo*

• Gnome: This cafe is part of Brewtown Newtown and it's located soo close to the office (again I walk pass everyday) I really want to try the food there! 

• Kurtosh: The cakes here are amazing! Thank you Cathy for bringing me here! And again so close to the office! 

• Stix: DESSERT! Beautifully arranged ice cream with your choice of toppings! How can I say no? 

• The Soda Factory:  Very unique venue and interesting concepts! Plus delicious food and good music YAYY! 

Honestly I would add more to the list but realistically with only 2 weeks left to my work experience in Surry Hills it's probably best not to overload myself with too many missions! But this is my brief list and I'm going to try my hardest to cover of these places in this time! 

♥ Lingfish

Café Explorer │ Earth To Table

After my trip to Bali where I experienced a vegan restaurant for the first time I’m now really keen to try new vegan dishes!! I always assumed vegan food would be really boring but honestly that is not the case at all! In fact vegan food sometimes has more flavour because there is no overpowering flavour of meat and artificial flavouring. Also there is something wholesome about eating vegan food!

So in order to try some vegan food in Sydney my friend Mark and I visited Eart To Table café in Bondi Junction which is actually the same brand of vegan as the restaurant in Bali!! I was so excited to try this place because it means I finally cross one place off my Bucket list!

♣

Anyways on to the food!

My MOCHA 

As with every other café explorer post I’ve ever written I got a MOCHA! The one at Earth to Table was espresso and raw cacao with steamed almond milk. Which is why it wasn’t as sweet as what I’m used to but I like how the coffee only had a hint of sweetness and not too much!

Mark decided to try the Give Me a Sparkle tonic which had the champagne of life, kefir probiotic in ginger which was …. Interesting! I also tried a tonic when I was in Bali and to be honest I’m not a fan of the taste of it but somehow I think it’ll be really good for you!

Kefir is a fermented milk drink made from fermented kefir grains and research has shown it improves lactose digestion and helps overall digestion because it contains micro-organisms that can colonise and protect the intestine again disease causing bacteria! Kefir is what gives this tonic a slightly sour taste which can really surprise you.

Ginger is another vegetable that is said to aid digestion, increase blood flow and is really popular with Asian mothers (at least mine loves it). But again it has a very particular taste and combined with kefir it was an interesting taste. IT’S GOOD FOR YOU!

Give me a HIGH! 

The third drink is called Give Me a High! Appropriately named! It was a frosty raw cacao-nut mylk with espresso and it WAS DELICIOUS! The drink was moderately sweet with a nice frosty top layer – definitely recommend trying it out!

Pesto Pasta! 

 For lunch I ordered the pesto pasta which was zucchini linguini with spinach and rocket pesto served in a lovely stack! It was delicious!! Very light yet still incredibly hearty and full of freshness and flavour! Vegan pasta definitely met my expectations!  

MUSHROOM! NOMNOM SHROOM 

Mark ordered the special dish for the day and it a mushroom based dish but to be honest I didn’t write down exactly what the waitress said about it. So I did some research and found out that it's - Raw marinated mushroom flats served with almond and sunflower seed bread with braised spinach and bernaise style sauce. 

The mushroom was cooked very different from how I typically eat mushroom (in soups normally) and it was cooked til tenderness. It almost reminded me to tender meat – ALMOST!

Peach and Raspberry Cheesecake!

THE CHEESECAKE! OMG! Actually the best cheesecake! Sweet but not too sweet and since it’s a vegan café there was no cheese in the actual cheesecake which may be disappointing for some people but it’s actually good for me since I am not a big fan of cheese. I REALLY WANT TO TRY MORE FLAVOURS OF CHEESECAKES! THEY HAVE SO MANY!! Vegan desserts!!! 

Click Read more for the FULL REVIEW!

Food Bucket List - Sydney Edition

Because I have a memory of a gold fish literally and I keep forgetting about places that I want to eat at I decided to do an entire blog post about them (and there is soo many)! If anyone has any other recommendations PLEASE let me know! I shall add them to the list!

When I get to visit these places I shall cross them off :)

1. Cafe Style/Lunch: 

• Oliver Brown
• Three Beans 
• Kanzi (try the food)
• Barmuda (for the mocha)
• Mary Street Cafe 
• MSM Chatswood 
• Orto Trading Co 
• Bourke Street Bakery
• Element 6
• Le monde 
• Earth to Table
• The Grounds Alexandria
• Clipper Cafe (again)
• Lyons R.A.W
• Excelsior Jones 
• Kitchen by Mike
• Cafe Sopra 
• Espress Organica 
• Three Williams Cafe 
• Bondi Wholefoods
• Suveran at Bondi 
• Dough Collective 
• Black Star Pastry and Cafe 
• The Paramount Coffee Project 
• The Copper Mill 
• Brickfields 
• Four Ate Five 
• Bread and Circus 
• Central Baking Depot 
• Cabrito Coffee Traders 
• Pablo and Rusty's 
• Marlowe's Way 
• Mecca Espresso 
• Ampersand Cafe and Bookstore 
• The Wedge Espresso 
• Bion Societe 
• Sappho Books, Cafe and Wine Bar
• White Rabbit Gallery tea house  
• Cafe Shenkin 
• Pharmacy Cafe 
• Reuben Hills
• Toby's Estate - Near Uni!
• Blue Bird
• Watts On Crown 
• Greenheart Espresso
• Bootsdarling
• 212 Blu
• The Stables Cafe  
• Three Blue ducks 
• MCA Cafe 
• Pottery Green Baker 
• Two Good Eggs 
• The Chalkboard Cafe 
• The Bitton Cafe 
• Brown Sugar 
• Kepos Street Kitchen
• Gnome (Part of BREWTOWN NEWTOWN!)  
• Cornersmith Cafe 
• Pilgrim - WHY SO FAR! 
• The Annex 
• T2 Cafe 
• Pain De Sucre 
• Little Marionette 
• Luxe Bakery 
• La Renaissance 
• Rustic Pearl  
• Mad Spuds 
• Tea +
• Autolyse Sydney
• Lid and Jar 
• Circa Espresso
• Wedge Espresso 
• Three Ropes Espresso
• Palomino Espresso
• Baker Bros 

2. Restaurants:

• Flying Fish
• Soda Factory
• Azuma (for the meal)
• Pastizzi Cafe 
• Chur Burger 
• Gastro Park 
• Meat and Wine Co
• Rockpool 
• The Little Snail 
• Miss Peaches 
• The Rook
• Good God 
• The Cuban Place 
• Nishiki 
• Koh-Ya 
• Pappa Rich 
• Ryotei Ramen 
• Cipro 
• Mr Wong 
• QT 
• Est. 
• Sepia 
• Quay 
• Yulli's 
• MEXICO 
• The Burger Joint 
• Buns and BAlls 
• Beijing Alley 
• Bishop Sessa
• Yuki's  
• Hot Star Fried Chicken 
• Cochin Restaurant 
• House of Crabs 
• Cafe Sydney 
• Bavarian Bier Cafe 
• Baroque Pantry 
• Khao Pla 
• Ramen Ikkyu 
• The French House 
• Coco Cubano 
• Youeni FoodStore 
• Movida 
• Tapavino 
• Ms G's 
• Lentil As Anything Sydney
• Alpha Restaurant 
• Mejico  
• El Loco  
• Mr Crackles  
• Toko
• Beach Burrito Company
• Nomad
• Jazz City Milk Bar 

3. Desserts: 

• Kurtosh (again) 
• Bills - for their pancakes AND food but mainly pancakes 
• Bay Vista Gateau 
• Mak Mak Macarons
• Café Cre Asion  
• The Sweet Spot 
• Sweetness 
• Lorraine's Patisserie 
• Flour and Stone 
• Anita Gelato 

4. Bars:

• Mary's 
• The Lobo Pantation
• The Wild Rover  
• Tio's 
• The Barber Shop 
• Grasshopper Bar 
• Newtown Hotel 
• The Argyle 
• Glass Wine Bar
• Uncle Ming's 
• Lil Darling 

5. SPECIAL:

• Belly Bao
• Sydney Food trucks  - Veggie Patch Van 

All the places in this list I want to try as well:

http://www.au.timeout.com/sydney/restaurants/features/13101/top-5-coffee-in-the-cbd

If only I had a faster metabolism...

It'd be like this nomnom-ing every day!

♥ Lingfish

Café Explorer│Brewtown Newtown

Everyday my addiction to coffees grows!! But that’s ok because it means I get to explore more cafés around Sydney to find my favourite Mocha!

This time my friend and I decided to venture to Brewtown Newtown (gotta say I love the place just for its name) for a very long overdue catch up! Here is my little review of this wonderful café!

♠

Food First:

MY MOCHHHAAA :D 

Because I arrived really early I had my coffee first and I also had time to really taste the mocha there – it was delicious! This café really knows how to get coffee right – thank you for doing the name justice ♥

Also the coffee was served with soda water on the side which was something I wasn’t used to at cafés but it was a welcomed changed as I really enjoyed it!

Chai! 

My friend order the Chai which was actually served in a pretty tea set complete with honey on the side! Unfortunately I was so distracted with the conversation I forgot to take a photo of the milky cream colour of the chai as it poured out but I can say it was mouth-watering!

After settling in we order some lunch and by this time I was feeling something filling but different to the typical dishes I get so I decided on the Duck Ravioli with porcini and wild mushroom.  Porcini is a type of fungus used a lot more in European cooking but as an Asian girl I’ve always loved things like fungus but it’s largely dependent on the way it’s cooked! I think this Brewtown did this sooo well!

In terms of portion I wasn’t used to their only being two pieces of ravioli but it was two VERY large pieces of ravioli with some hearty soup that really warmed me up on that rainy day! The ravioli was so full of flavour of delicious I again forgot to take a photo of the insides because it got inside my stomache… my photos don’t show my love for this meal!! <3 p="">

My friend also ordered something very hearty – the meat ball sandwich with tomato, basil sauce and mozzarella baguette. I was enjoying my meal wayyyyyy too much so I actually didn’t get to try hers but she said it was delicious and extremely filling! Don’t worry it gives me an excuse to visit Brewtown again (not that I need one anyway). Read more for the full review and more pictures :) 

Café Explorer│ Coffee Traders at Ryde

This particular place I’ve been wanting to try for a long time because it’s right next to my bus stop so I pass it literally EVERYDAY! And finally I had the chance to try the food and coffee there!! (About time) Here’s my little blog post about this local café.

Exactly where we were sitting! 

Definitely a lively café that is spacious very stylishly designed with really interesting design touches like the chalk board and the vespa! Not every day you see a packed motorbike in a café!

COFFEE ADDICTION MET! :) 

As per usual we ordered two large Mochas and the coffee there was definitely something else! Sweet but not too sweet where I can taste the chocolate syrup and it was definitely effective to waken my senses. Coffee cravings as I write this..

And here comes the food!

Karen ordered the egg chicken chorizo and bacon on sour dough bread! And it was amazing! It was actually my first time trying chicken chorizos and it was so full of flavour! Because it was my first time eating it I’m not sure how to describe the flavour but it was something similar to Chinese preserved sausages with its oily but mouth watering taste. The bacon was fried to a crisp it literally broke apart as you tried to cut into it! That’s one of the best textures of bacon I’ve ever tasted!!! One day I shall learn to cook bacon like that! The sour dough was fresh and generously buttered it left this amazing crunch on the crust but soft and tender in the centre!

DEM EGGS!

My dish was the scrambled egg with ham and chicken with rocket and sour dough bread. I choose it because scrambled eggs are one of my favourite foods! It definitely met my egg cravings as the egg was really fluffy and delicious without too much cream or milk unlike year 7 camp style scrambled eggs (that was traumatising for me because I hated that milky eggy taste). The rest of my dish was nothing incredibly special but again the sour dough bread was so satisfying and filling. In comparison my food wasn’t as flavoursome (the chicken chorizos really packed a punch) but I prefer the milder flavours and softer textures.

Both food portions are huge! This is why I never lose weight isn’t? Anyway click read more for the review and more food porn:

Café Explorer │Devon Café

Coffee Addicts Unite

This is a new section of my blog!! So the story is ---  prior to university I really disliked the smell and taste of coffee but after I started my degree I found myself really loving coffees and spending time in cafes! Now I spend so much time in cafes catching up with friends or just spending some time alone writing and reading. So I decided to really enjoy every part of Australia’s Café Culture by exploring as many cafes as possible!

Devon Café is one I’ve been meaning to try for the longest time because I’ve seen some really amazing photos of the food on Instagram (HAHA TRUE STORY) and what better time to try it out than on NEW YEAR’S EVE with my hubby/wifey!

Interior! 

EXTERIOR LOGO :) 

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Here are my ratings for Devon Café:

Location: ★★★★☆

Devon café is at 76 Devonshire St, Surry Hills which is very close to central station – only maybe a 2 minute walk depending on which exist to you get out of. It’s close enough to the city to be convenient but far away enough for it not to be incredibly hectic and business like!

Menu: ★★★★☆

The menu is incredibly extensive but that’s typical for all cafes. They offered a wide range of interesting dishes which that really married café food and multicultural flavours. Like My Second Asian Cousin Gone Summery! So it was pretty different and unique compared to all the other cafés I’ve tried!! Devon also offers Daily Specials that differ all the time for those that want something extra special!

The menu noob photographer style! 

Taste: ★★★★☆

DELICIOUS! Even though I’m not always a huge fan of café food I really think they did an amazing job with all the food! But more about that later!

YUMYUMYUMYUM!

Price: ★★★★☆

Devon’s not the cheapest of all places but the prices are not outrageously expensive either! There’s a huge range of prices on the menu so it’s whatever you can afford at the time – for poor university students there’s always the breakfast menu! :P

Overall Experience: ★★★★★

I want to go again… soon! That’s how great my experience there was! The ambience is really relaxed and it was really nice to sit in a café that was also exposed to the sunlight (LOVE COURT YARDS SO MUCH)! The staff members were really friendly even though they were working on New Year’s Eve and it was such a relaxed atmosphere. Definitely want to go back and try more food there!! Read more for FOOD!

♣