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! 

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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!

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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:

Noobie Foodie│Pappa Rich

Hi friends! 

One of the luckiest things about attending Sydney uni is the amount of delicious food in our area! Newtown, Broadway and Surry Hills are all completely within reach! And since it's my last semester at uni there's definitely no better time to explore the wonderful food outlets nearby! So I decided to start with Pappa Rich the Malaysian Restaurant that opened near Broadway recently which constantly has a line (for good reasons too)!

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So on to the food....

Iced Kopi 

My friend Kat ordered the Iced Kopi ($3.90) which is the Malaysian version of an iced coffee and it was really refreshing! Not as bitter as normal Australian coffee and definitely milkier than what I'm used to but suitable for people who don't enjoy very strong coffee! 

Gravy Noodles

This was such a delicious dish!! Pappa Wat Tan Hor ($13.50) which is a wok fried combination noodle with egg gravy, prawns, fish cakes, chicken slices and fried shallots and a side of sliced preserved green pepper! Yummy texture of the gravy! Love the smoothness of it! Definitely worth a try! 

Rice, Chicken and Sambal prawn

For me I chose the Biryani Rice with Red Chicken and Sambal Prawn ($13.50) and man I didn't regret my choice at all! The rice was so flavoursome and different! The sambal gave me the spicy kick I needed! The red curry chicken was juicy and not spicy at all! The best meat comes off the bone and damn the meat definitely came off the bone for this! YUM!

ROTI! 

How does one go to Pappa Rich and not try the Roti?! But we were quite full at this point so we just tried the Roti Canai ($6.90). So fluffy and delicious! Love Roti so so so so much! I really want to compare Pappa Rich's roti to Mamak's Roti! 

Read more for the full review:

Noobie Foodie│Din Tai Fung

Good morning, beautiful people!

Din Tai Fung is one of the most popular places for dumplings, wontons and other tasty Asian treats and since it's one of my good friend S's favourite place we decided to go there for some lunch! Delicious food and excellent service made my experience there very enjoyable! 

Din Tai Fung Food Adventures

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So on to the fooddd!

Dumplings

When one goes to Din Tai Fung it is imperative to get DUMPLINGS! It's what they're best known for and man it was delicious! We got the Crab Meat and Roe with Pork Dumplings and man they were delicious! Filled with soup and dumpling skin steamed to perfection! I couldn't really taste the roe but none the less it was good to try it! 

Wonton

Of course after dumplings we had to also get some wontons! This is my friends favourite thing - Pork and Prawn Wonton Soup! Warm and a great dish for winter!

Green Beans

This is one of my favourite dishes from DTF - Green Beans with Mince Pork! The minced pork is well marinated and combined with the flavoursome beans make this one of my all time favourites! 

Xia long bao

XIA LONG BAO! This is again another signature dish from DTF! So delicious! Soupy and warm! My only complaint is that it's dangerous to eat this fresh because you can potentially burn the roof of mouth very easily! Also beware because the soup will explode onto clothes (Yes this is from experience)!

Shao Mai

Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai! Although not as tasty as the dumplings it's still very good and something I would recommend to try! 

Calamari Ring

Finally we also got the Deep Fried Calamari Rings! Even though I would have liked some dessert there was definitely too much food as I shall visit DTF again for the dessert! 

Read more for the full review:

Noobie Foodie│Soda Factory

Good morning/evening friends!

It's finally the uni break and I can finally go back to regular blogging! YAY! This time it's about a very hidden and unique place called the Soda Factory. For those that can find where it is - WELL DONE! It's honestly one of the most interesting entrances to a bar/restaurant I've ever been to! Although I'm not a regular visitor to the place I wish I had more time to hang out there! Especially on Tuesdays because they have ONE DOLLAR HOT DOGS! AWW YES! And the hot dogs are soo worth trying out!!

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I really wish I tried all the different hot dog options (there are 5 in total) but because my friend Kat and I weren't that hungry we didn't end up getting that many just 2 each. It's ok because I'm totally going back to get some more!

Frank Sinatra

The first hot dog I tried was The Frank Sinatra, which was a beef and pork frankfurter, pickles and a crispy onion ring! It was a very petite hot dog for what I'm used to but it was delicious! Tasty mustard and I love the pickles!

Buffalo Bill 

OH this was SO YUMMY! The Buffalo Bill which was a battered chicken sausage with spicy buffalo sauce and cheese! OH YUM! The batter was so crispy combined with the slightly spicy sauce definitely would get again!

Yoko Ono

Kat got the Yoko Ono which was the vegetarian hot dog and I didn't expect much from it but it was actually pretty tasty! Of course not my favourite but not bad for a veggie sausage!

Read more for the full review!

Dessert Happiness │Gelato Messina

Hiya friends,

Stressed spelt backwards is desserts so to overcome my extreme stress from the uni finals I decided to indulge myself with GELATO! It was worth it! My favourite dessert place in the world is Messina and I would recommend it to anyone! This is actually my second Messina post and I think about Messina a lot - read it here! 

Recently the annual Sydney Light festival Vivid special started and there was a Messina special of Psychedelic Psundaes and of course I was dying to try it out! Luckily I had the opportunity on Friday to try out these delicious Psundaes! 

Menu! 

Here is are the 4 different options they had for the Psundaes - yes it's a pretty pricey Psundae considering it's $10 EACH! So I would probably share one between 2 people but to be honest I think it's worth it! 

Blue gelato! 

The one we choose was the Silly Cone Chips which was swirled salted coconut and mango sorbet topped with choc chip cookies, blue popping candy and a banana-caramel filled cone. And boy it was worth the money! 

Swirrrrllllyyyy gelato 

Ok my camera doesn't have a flash so sorry for the lighting! But the gelato was SO YUMMY! Especially the banana caramel that filled the cone which was super fluffy and combined with the gelato was just heavenly! Of course being really childish but the popping candy was a nice touch as well! Overall it was a psundae that didn't disappoint! I really want to try all the other flavours as well! (Bringing a camera with a flash next time) 

TRY IT BEFORE VIVID FINISHES ON THE 9TH!! 

How the Psundae looks in normal lighting! 

Just some additional photos of Messina Gelato and a short review because I love them that much! 

Noobie Foodie│Hot Star Large Fried Chicken

Hello beautiful people! 

Following my post about fried chicken last week I decided to blog about a little food adventure I had in Melbourne recently! FEATURING FRIED CHICKEN! This was one of the BEST fried chicken I've ever had! Context: it was during a really cold, rainy night and we got hungry during the bar hopping so we decided to try out Hot Star and IT WAS WORTH IT! NO REGRETS! 

DAMN GIRL THIS CHICKEN!

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So on to the food... 

We just got the Original Fried Chicken ($8) and it was WORTH EVERY DOLLAR! First of all the size of the fried chicken really surprised me!! The size of the chicken was bigger than my face - I can't really imagine eating it by myself! 

So it was a little bit oily but the chicken was so moist and juicy! I loved it within the first bite! SO GOOD!! There were some bones in it but there wasn't many and by the time we reached the chicken we were so full! 

So happy eating chicken! 

IT's bigger than my face! 

The thing with Hot Star is there is usually a pretty long line so it take a while to get the chicken but we got really lucky and there was no line so we got served within 2-3 minutes, it was so efficient! 

Read more for the full review!