[Brisbane] Market Square Shanghai Restaurant

Now I am not sure if this place even has an English name. Well, there is only one Shanghainese place at Market Square next to a hair salon so it's quite obvious.


Best value lunch option

For less than AUD10, you get 1 meat and 3 veg with an egg thrown in. This is considered superb value for Australian standard. In Brunei, you can get all this for less than AUD3!

Stir fried thick noodles

Nothing to shout home about.

Dumplings soup

Cheap eat and run place. Go for the value lunch option.

[Brisbane] Mehfil Indian Rasoi

Mehfil Indian Rasoi
Shop 28B
1932 Logan Road
Upper Mount Gravatt
Telephone 07-32168444
Website: http://www.mehfil.com.au/




The popular thali meal (dine-in only)

You get 2 meat curries, 1 veg, dhal, raita, poppadum, naan, pilau rice and a piece of sweet.


Masala dosai

Filled with spicy potatoes masala served with dhal and a curry sauce. Dosai was well made, paper thin and crunchy.

Sigh....Indian restaurants here are not up to scratch. I miss Brunei's no-frills hole-in-the-wall Indian joints and the roti which kind of failed everywhere I have tried here from Melbourne to Brisbane.....

[HK Dec 2009] Day 4 What we ate

Breakfast at Cafe de Coral

Sick of hotel's breakfasts, we decided to check out Hong Kongers' favourite local fast food joint.


Fried noodles

Oily and ordinary.


Maple syrup chicken chop set

Chicken chop tender and well marinated. Pan-fried radish cake is average, not too floury which is good.

The noodles was so blah, I decided to eat something nice and trekked up the street to buy egg tart from Tai Cheong. We were in Hong Kong for god's sake! Shouldn't be bogged down by sub-par food.

Ah bliss, those egg tarts never failed to please.

Tummy pleased, we made our way to Ocean Park.

Total waste of time and money. The only thing Princess enjoyed was those kiddy rides and we had better ones at our own backyard theme parks, Movie World, Seaworld so on and so on.

I even had asthma attack walking up and down the slopy roads. Not to mention the anxiety attacks earlier at the super long and scarily steep escalators at the bottom of those hills.

We had curry fishballs, mock sharks fin soup at the park and Princess had chips. All blah, must fuel the body with something nice when we escaped this nightmare place, grrrr, need good food!!

Tea at Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon (Landmark, Central)

Went with the intention of having the tea set but they were sold out, chan nian-ing...

Not even a macaron in sight, sob.....

Also can't see millefuille, cry..........

Opera slice

This was so more-ish, one of the best I have tasted, no joke!

Custard, chocolate and banana croissant

This is average (the croissant) but the filling is surprising tasty. Normally I shun banana whatever bake goods. I ordered this because Princess die die want almond croissant.

Not pictured but we also had a pear and caramel slice. It was so good I dived in and totally forgot to take a picture!

Kusmi caramel tea

Of course we had coffee too, it was decent. The tea tasted medicinal, liquorish/aniseedy which I personally dislike.

Dinner at Mak An noodles house


CWB branch

Dumpling noodle soup

The soup was seasoned OTT with white pepper and MSG. The wontons were tiny with little fillings. This can survived in good-food aplenty Hong Kong!? Seriously??

The noodles were springy, of course, for it reeks of alkali water. The lye was so strong it kind of seeped into the soup. Urghhh, total disaster bowl of 'thing'.

I can't believe Hong Kongers actually tolerate this 'thing'.

Dessert at Yan Wo soy products shop

Gloomy faced, I told Big-King I die die must eat something nice. We were in Hong Kong for @#$%'s sake. Morning episode coming back to haunt......

Cross the street and we arrived at a soy products 'specialist'.

Stuffed beancurds with fish paste

A man was pan-frying the stuffed beancurd near the entrance. The smell was amazing, it kept getting my attention as I was reading the menu.

Of course, I die die must try.

The stuffed beancurds were quite tasty and even nicer with the chilli sauce on the table. But they were quite oily. There were ladies on other tables using lots of tissues to soak up the oil.

Beancurd tau-fu-fah with black sesame paste

Tau-fu-fah was awesome!! Lose the black sesame paste, it got diluted by the syrup and made it looked and tasted yuck.

Princess die die wanted her daily dose of black sesame paste glutinous balls tong yun. I got a take-away from Lucky Dessert and they were blah tiny with little filling with super spicy gingery soup. But Princess enjoyed them nonetheless. Also had a take-away steamed milk pudding from Chui Yun, totally blah.

I wonder where I can find a good traditional dessert shop around CWB?

[Brisbane] Beastie Burgers

Beastie Burgers
Shop 60D
Little Stanley St
Southbank 4101 Qld


Established less than 2 years ago, this little burger joint on the restaurant stretch of Southbank offers gourmet style burgers.

Brisbane has seen mushrooming of gourmet burger joints after rapid expansion of Grill'd. There is even one branch in my sleepy neighbourhood.

Pork burger

It was supposed to be served with apple sauce instead of sweet chili mayo you see on the pic but they ran out. What? At 12.xx less than 2 hours after opening??

But the mayo goes well with the tasty pork patty.


Lamb burger

This is a seroiusly huge burger. Lamb patty topped with grilled eggplant and sweet potato. The lamb patty was disappointingly bland and dry. The flavours of the condiments do not go well with each other, sweet potato does not go well with eggplant and capsicum sauce and avocado puree. I'd say replace the sweet potato with grilled capsicum (though I don't like it) or lose it altogether. It has no place here, just spoiling the harmony of taste.

Balsamic glazed fries with dip

An idea copied from Red Rock Deli gourmet chips flavour perhaps? Fries were hot and crunchy, nothing spectacular nor memorable.

Now, the herby salted fries at Grill'd are simply to die for, it's no.1 in Brisbane in my book and no.2 is Salsa's spiced Mexican crinkled fries *drool*

[HK Dec2009] Day 3 What we ate

Breakfast

We had brekkie again at hotel. Three Western sets this time.

Lunch

After shopping around Causebay Bay, I can't wait to make my way over to Kowloon Island to visit my personal favourite Tam Chai to have sour and spicy noodles and grilled chicken wings.

Then we traipse over 2 streets away to have our favourite desserts at Tai Leung Pat Kei.


Black sesame dumplings in ginger broth, warm sesame paste and cashewnut paste

There was this "The 44th Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo" going on at Victoria Park so we decided to walk a round there after a heavy lunch to burn some calories.

Inside the place was filled to the brim with people!! Especially the 'Ginseng, Dried Seafood & Soup Packs' Zone. OMG, nobody can walk in that zone, we were basically being 'pushed forward' all the way.






Prices were really cheap and I went away with 'some' stuff hehe. We left when we can't carry anymore.

Dinner

Due to previous night's experience in scoring a table at nice restaurants, I called to book a table. But still they were fully booked after 7pm on a weekday :-(. So we had an early dinner at 6.30pm and had to leave by 7.30pm. Not a problem, we are quick eaters.


Wu Kong at Times Square, Causeway Bay

Siao long (meat dumplings), we had 2 baskets.

Sweet and sour fish

Beancurd dumplings filled with vegetables

The filling was very tasty with a hint of sesame oil. This is a must order.

Honeyed ham

Chinese ham served with fried beancurd sheet in a bun drizzled with syrup. Super yummy! Another must order!

The food is of a high standard in this restaurant. It was as good as I remembered from my last experience at another branch at Peking Road, Tsimsachui.

[Brisbane] Lok Fook at Sunny Park

New-ish noodle place (at least at my time of visit) at sleepy Sunny Park, opposite to the busy Sunnybank Plaza.

Roast pork (charsiew) noodle.


Deep fried dumplings.

Soup was bland and dumplings were cooked to death. Charsiew was soso, I can't even remeber how they taste now. Quite forgettable.

Mmm, not my cup of tea.

[Melbourne Oct2009] Rest of what I ate.......

It was a shame I was very sick in Melbourne, there was so much good food that I missed, orz.......


Fish ball and fish cake noodles and jellyfish salad at Kum Den

The famed homemade fishball and cake were indeed tasty and bouncy.

Jellyfish was forgettable and smell a bit fishy, I suppose it's inevitable as they were frozen stuff.

Er, I think there is a mistake on the address on the bill, it's supposed to be 'Waratah Place', an alley off Little Bourke St, between Swanston and Russell.

Braised sea cucumber and fish maw AUD38

A visit to Quan Ju De is not to be missed if you are in Mebourne. Despite some bad press and reviews, I still think it's worth a visit there. You don't necessarily had to have duck there, they do very good dishes other than the duck.

We of course also ordered the default roast duck (half, not pictured) AUD40. This time round, the duck meat was moist but not fatty which I like and prefer.

Our other default order was Wuxi ribs AUD28 (not pictured). I haven't tasted a better version. The meat was flavorful, tender and moist and just fell off the bone, cooked to perfection.

Le Petite Gateau: Chupa Choc AUD7 and nougat praline millefuille AUD7

Princess looked forward to afternoon tea and our haunts were Laurent Patisserie, Le Petite Gateau and Koko Black (for the legendary iced chocolate AUD7.20).

Le Petite Gateau is the only patisserie I am impressed with in Melbourne CBD. Laurent, I have blogged to death and gotten quite sick with but it's location is convenient.

[HK Dec2009] Day 2 in Hong Kong, what I ate.........

Breakfast

Free at hotel.




Set B

We only ever eat Set A & B.

Lunch

Chui Wah Macaunese Restaurant

There are several branches throughout HK and Kowloon. The branch we visited was the one on Lockhart Road as we were nearby shopping for shoes.


Hokkien fried rice


Mixed chop set rice

Consisted of chicken chop, pork chop, hotdog, ham and chicken wing served on rice. Some greens were served on side.


Portuguese tart

Afternoon tea

UCC Cafe at Apita, Taikooshing




Winter special: Chocolate waffles served with ice-cream and fruit; coffee

We shopped up a storm at Taikooshing. By the time we decided to buy a luggage to put all our shopping in, I am super tired and my feet were killing me.

UCC Cafe was right next to luggage department so me and Princess went in to have a waffle and coffee while waiting for Big King to finalise the purchase.

Dinner

KFC

There were queues everywhere at every restaurants' doors.

It was raining and we were super hungry so we decided to just cross the road and patronise KFC. It was our last resort, but we actually had our best meal of the day!

Mushrom rice and portuguese tarts were nice. The tarts were a lot nicer than what we had in the arvo.

Supper

Yishun

We went back to the shops behind Sogo to look for Princess school shoes at Clarks.

After making the purchase, we walked a few doors away to Yishun to have the famed double skin steamed milk.

It had been raining since the morning and I was feeling a bit under the weather so I ordered steamed milk with ginger juice.

The ginger was very strong, I actually had difficulty taking a second bite but I managed to finish about 3/4 and felt energised after eating. It warmed the body up insantly starting from the tummy and spread to rest of body slowly. I felt it boosted my immune system, hehe.

I still think Australian Dairy Co. in Jordan is best for steamed milk.

[Brisbane] Little Taipei Foodcourt. Yang Mama

Little Taipei is located at Market Square, Sunnybank, above High Fresh Supermarket.




Dingy stairway leading to air-conditioned food court on the first floor.

There are four other stalls to choose from; steak/chop on hotplate stall, Korean food stall, Sichuan food stall and an Easyway drink stall.

The other vacant stall lots were pretty run-down and filled with junks.

Fried fish fillets in noodle broth.

Fish fillets were cooked perfectly and seasoned nicely. I am sure they were the cheap frozen basa fillets probably those imported ones from Vietnam. Still, they tasted pretty good for fried fish fillets and no funny fishy smell.

Noodle broth was the thick starchy type with lots of onion pieces swimming around. It tasted quite ordinary and bland with a hint of bonito.

I doused the broth with lots of vinegar, it kind of liven up the flavour.

I think it was only AUD8, I'd say it's not bad as you get three pieces of sizeable fish fillets.