Shin Yuan Restaurant @ Market Square

Menu


Sparerib rice (Sparerib is flavorful and juicy)


Sweet & sour chicken chop rice (Sweet and sour nicely balanced, poured on top of super crunchy chop, YUM)


Wanton soup (nice and meaty but wrapper/skin is too thick)


Braised sparerib (Princess' favourite)

Fig gateau by Chouquette

This gateau taste funny, maybe, I don't like fig......

Pistachio Macaron & Canele by Chouquette

My computer kena virus and spyware and adware, tmd, damn unlucky. It's all over now because I have a computer doctor at home, hehe.

Croissants by Chouquette

Pan au amande

So far this has been my absolute favourite from Chouquette.

Light and fluffy croissant filled with buttery sugary almond and topped with a layer of mexican bun like topping generously sprinkled with almond flakes. Best eaten warm!

Pain au chocolat

Compared to the almond croissant, the chocolate version is just plain ordinary, no hidden surprise, no taste sensation but the good chocolate used is the only salvation. Pass.

Chocolate Eclairs by Chouquette

Eclair filled with chocolate creme patisserie and coated with chocolate on top. Irresistible!

Gateau & Macarons by Chouquette

The first moment I saw macarons inside Chouquette's jewel box, er, cabinet, I was beyond joy!

My beloved macarons, oh, how I miss you. Unsure of the quality, I only packed 2 home for tasting. Thereafter, they became my default buy everytime I visit the patisserie. The macaron shell is moist and just a little chewy on the inside and crunchy on the exterior. Both filling and macaron are unexpectedly not too sweet and good chocolate used. Hmm, hmmm, I am a happy bunny and so is little bunny, ha!

The chocolate gateau (name in French unknown) with its glistening chocolate coat was beckoning at me. I asked the pretty French girl behind the counter to pack one for me.

As soon as we finished dinner, I quickly cut the cake, took photo of the wicked cross-section 'pose' and attacked the gateau with Princess. EVERY mouthful sent us to seventh heaven. Such a dainty and complex creation with layers of almond genoise sponge, milk chocolate mousse and dark chocolate mousse covered in glossy chocolate coating and decorated with chocolate squares at the side and chocolate macarons & chocolate curl on top. The sweetness is within acceptable level, less sweet compared to Canele's gateau.

Chouquette will be sorely missed when I leave Brisbane one day *sob*sob*

Chouquette @ New Farm

Chouquette
19 Barker Street
New Farm


Chouquette by Chouquette

These quaint sugar crystal dipped choux pastry are a real treat. Princess especially love these. The patisserie had named itself after these sugary treat so they must be better than good.

While the shopfront does not reveal much (because of the easily missed shop sign and reflective glass windows), upon entering the shop, you'll be greeted with cabinets filled with petits four, tarts, gateaus, croissants and a cupboard of bread on one side of the wall. Variety is limited but all french patisserie classics are all there.

More posts to come on Chouquette!

Oriental Breakfast @ Sunnybank Plaza

Menu (more sets available)



We ordered:-

Set E - Barbecued pork bun, pork dumpling(x2) and glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf ($6.90)

Set H - Congee, chinese crullers and rice roll ($7.90)

All served with beverage of your choice. We opted for a milk tea and a milk coffee.

Everything was quite tasty. A bargain given the price.

Mei Xin Seven Star Snowskin and Chi Hua baked lotus paste mooncakes.


Snowskin with mashed mung bean paste with assorted flavours including mango, lychee, coffee, black sesame, yuzu (yuck *puke*), green tea and strawberry.

Hien Vuong @ Market Square

Vietnamese restaurant in Market Square with eye catchy neon signs on the window. What's this thing about neon lights with Vietnamese restaurants? ALL the viet joints I've seen around town (like those on Hardgrave Road) are adorned with neon lights. So cheesy, eeeeee......

Four colours rice and spring rolls

Four colours refer to pork chop, fried egg, meat patty and shredded meat stir fry something. The 'four colours' were cold (must be cooked in advance) but tasted alright. Little wonder it arrived at the table within minutes of ordering.

Springrolls were good, Princess kept asking for them.

Chicken pho with crispy chicken

So this restaurant claimed to be pho specialist (noticed the big 'PHO' sign on the window), of course must try lah. The pho came with lots of herbs floating on top. Uh-oh, I saw bits of celery floating around. I hate the stuff!! I chanted to myself, celery is good for you, celery is good for you................Finally picked up courage to try. Oklah acceptable, not too smelly and didn't taste too strong. Luckily the noodles didn't soak up any of the flavour. The fried chicken oklah, could have stayed in the marinade longer maybe a day, haha.

Would I go back? Only if I am in desperate need of a springroll fix and happen to be nearby.

I have also tried the cha-chan-teng next door. No good but portion very generous. Could do better with the moolah elsewhere. Also tried the viet restaurant in Sunnybank Plaza, nothing outstanding from there, I couldn't even remember what I ate!

Princess in style

Nah Bi, I asked her to pose and she gave me some funny moves, kekeke.

[The King and I] 2007 Birthday Makan

It was my birthday yesterday.

I searched the web long and hard for some wonderful eats around here. French bistro or Japanese, arghhh, torn between the two.

In the end, Japanese food won, cos it's just round the corner where I stay. Big King is not fond of Jap food, but heck, I got say, it's my birthday meal.

It's a gamble on this neighbourhood restaurant called Sakura on Bennetts Road. It has no website, review is scarce. Aiyo, didn't even know whether it will be expensive.

Aiyah, don't care, I'm hankering for a sashimi and tempura fix. We visited last saturday without a reservation. Two vacant tables, lucky.

Top: Karaage (about A$9??) and agedashi tofu (about A$8??)
Bottom: Moreton Bay bug tempura (A$16) and assorted sashimi (A$27)

It was a busy weekend night and we waited around half an hour for our food to arrive. I thought the food delish, was it because I was starving? The sashimi and tempura were wery good. I can't wait to visit again!

Big King ordered his usual (not pictured) tonkatsu (A$18.80) served with miso soup, rice, side salad and a section of corn cob. Blah, the meat was dry.

Big King also had his birthday earlier this month. He didn't care for a 'lavish' meal. So I cincai cook for him.


Lunch: I cooked my fav English breakfast. Macam my birthday, eh, tsk tsk tsk.

I went gila when I saw Bangalow sweet pork on sale at James St market. Allegedly better than the world famous Kurobuta pork, die die must try lah. I bought the pork sausages and bacon. Oh, how beautiful and pristine they look, both raw and cooked.

One had to have the best bread and eggs to go with the rare sausages and bacon. I got a loaf of Boule from Chouquette and free range eggs from market. Aiyo, everything so delicious I must have died and gone to heaven.

Dinner: Long life yee meen with Hokkaido scallops.

Fish maw, eh no salah, it's sea cucumber with shiitake.

The scallops, eeee, not wery nice o. Better stick to our fab Harvey Bay scallops.

Sea cucumber was bought frozen. So thick and springy.

'Somebody' will snigger and say."my $280 a kilo one nicer and better."

Ok, ok (in high pitch) let you win. You are whatever world's champion lumba wan. Everybody, kowtow NOW.

I also cooked Hainanese chicken rice. Whoo, so stuffed after dinner, cannot even walk.

The cake I baked for Big King tidak jadi. Bought salah mould, aiyah, *frustration*. So tried to make a hot lava chocolate pudding. Sekali......tidak jadi also, the centre gooey gooey but refused to flow out. Aiyah, double frustration! For the first time I hate Delia....

Sunnybank Oriental

We came for lunch, still quite a few tables vacant. So unlike our last visit where we have to queue and given a number.

My craving for claypot rice is what brought us here. Quite a few varieties to choose from, I settled for garoupa fillets in black bean sauce. Everything in the pot was cooked to perfection. I was surprised to find mui choy hidden underneath the fish. Very very tasty.

Big King had Shunde fried kway teow. The kway teow was fried dry with lap cheong, egg, beansprouts and squid. Shunde style meh? Wery salty, not wery good, no no.

Spotted salt and pepper squid on the menu, couldn't resisit. Not wery good oso, came soggy and wery salty.

Will only visit again for the cheap brekkie sets and claypot rice.

Little Singapore @ Market Square

Favourite haunt when we crave food from home.



The restaurant quickly filled up as soon as it opens. There is also al-fresco dining outside.

Hainanese chicken rice A$7.80

My default order, chicken is smooth and rice is fragrant. Better than my creation. Chilli and spring onion ginger also passable.

Fried mee kway teow A$9.80

This is good stuff, full of wok hei. Prawn and squid were extremely fresh and cooked to perfection.

A cheap (by Oz standard) and cheerful restaurant.

Jan Power's Farmers Markets @ New Farm

Location: 119 Lamington Street, New Farm
(only 10 minutes from where I stay, yahoooo!!)

The market starts at crack of dawn and finishes at around midday.

An upmarket farmer's market with shoppers toting their Chanel, LV, Guccis and A$160 Grosler shopping trolley around. I have seen a lady using a medium Longchamp dumpling as her shopping 'basket' @_@


Stalls selling woven basket, petit fours, organic muesli.


Beautifully packaged brownies (tis ok but not worth the hefty price tag), pickled olives, greek yogurt (my fav!) and fresh vegetables & fruits stalls.

Fresh & frozen seafood, german sausages (my fav!), hydrophonic tomatoes and different varieties of spuds.

Organic meat stall, interesting snazzy prints, the famous Sol sourdough bread (they're really good), natural skin & bodycare products and exotic mushroom stall.

Dainty petit fours from Amore Fine Food. They are all YUM!

Himalayan Cafe @ New Farm

Saw this colourful cafe further up the road from Gerbino. Himalayan food, mmm, I am not sure........

Gerbino's Pasticceria @ New Farm

Few shops away from Re Del gelato is this authentic Italian bakery. Aiyo, dessert freak like me screamed (in the head and heart) die die must try when I spied the shop driving up and down Brunswick street looking for Re Del.

I practically 'ran' to the shop after being refreshed by my guava sorbet. Wow, look at the gelato cabinet, look at the whole cake display, look at the small goodies cabinets full of bacis, meringues, canollis, biccies, tiramisu and miniature cakes.

I was like a child in a toy store, excited, pointing here and there, running from canibet to cabinet, kanasiau. Luckily, no one bothered (there's no one in the shop except us and the owners too busy haha)

Aiyo, cincai lah, what for pack so sui?



After throwing millions of questions at the owner, I only brought home pistachio canolli and coffee semifreddo (cake not ice cream). I hope I didn't kena cursed....

Verdict:

Canolli - eee er, I don't like. The pastry tasted fried in 'thousand year' oil. The filling is sourish cheese with pistachio coated at both ends. I gali after eating.

Coffee semifreddo - now this one is nice and very addictive. I love coffee mah.

I had planned return visits, but ever since I discovered Chouquette I cannot stay away from the place. Wait lah, see when I get sian of the place.

Driscoll's - World's Best Strawberries?

Earlier last month, I scored some Driscoll's strawberries. Allegedly to be the best variety in the world, Driscoll is indeed sweet and juicy. Before, I thought English strawberries in summer is KING. Now Driscoll's is top KING, hehe.

Don't ask how strawberries are in season in the middle of winter here in Oz. Really don't ask, see them, grab them and eat them.

There's this strawberry vendor in the fortnightly Jan Power market. Ther're always there, rain or shine. Tried the sample, it's Kandara variety (whatever...). OK sweet so buy. Turns out, kena tipu. Those we brought home average sweet only. Meh. Will give them 'pigeon' eye next time I pass by the stall.

Re Del Gelato @ New Farm

Big shop, lots of flavour with minimal seatings.


Menu

After a forgetable meal at Morgan's, my stomach is crying out, 'feed me yummy food.'



So many choices, so little tummy space. After some 'heated' debate in my head, I settled for guava sorbet (for me) and nutella (for Princess).



The colours were quite subtle (a good sign). They may not look appetising (lack of colour) but the flavours pack a bunch.

Guava sorbet: it's like scoffing down real guava, only in sorbet form.
Nutella: smell and tasted like the real mccoy.


Seating at one corner

There is no lack of good gelato place in Brisbane, they are everywhere! *Big grin*

'Trendy' Stones Corner, NOT

One fine day I brought Princess jalan-jalan in the nearby factory outlet stores. The neighbouhood has been described as 'trendy', mehhhhhh......

Took us 20 minutes by foot and up and down some hills (we stay on higher grounds with stunning views). We arrived and I was breathless. Bad bad idea bringing Princess out on my own, somemore on foot.

Though tired but spirits were high. I pointed my camera everywhere and click, click, click away. There were a LOT of bemused looks. Chinese lady one hand holding a toddler, the other hand on the camera, audible but incomprehensible sound coming out of her mouth (ordering Princess to behave and don't run off on her own). I know I must be a sight :D

Had lunch at the local conveyor belt sushi shop before heading home. Bad idea...I spotted 'ju jiang' soya sauce on the cooking station/worktop. Tis a 'mutton dressed in lamb's coat' shop. I had only 4 plates and the bill came up to A$18.70. Big rip off!