Han Palace

Helloooo readers :)

a few Saturdays ago, the TBS members accompanied by miss VT paid a visit to Han Palace. A nice chinese restaurant in Bennett St, East Perth. As we were walking into the restaurant there was a bride and a groom standing in front of the entrance, with their best man & maid of honours behind them. Apparently there was a wedding reception happening in the restaurant. For a split second there, we wasn't sure if we made the right reservation, because unlike the Red Herring, the entrance to the reception and the normal restaurant was the same. Therefore as we were entering the restaurant, we were blinded by the flashing lights of the cameras. Honestly speaking, it wasn't the kind of reception that we Indonesians are used to, but it was nice nevertheless. Congratulations to the bride and groom, whoever you are!

Anyway, let's get on the menu. We chose to have the banquet menu, which was a choice of 5 dishes plus steam rice or fried rice. Here's what we had: pan fried tooth fish, tai chin chicken, chilli pepper squid, Shanghai style pork ribs, mixed vegetables, and red bean pancake with vanilla ice cream for dessert. They were all really good, I particularly loved the pan fried tooth fish. But miss FDQ reckoned the chilli pepper squid was pretty standard, wasn't as wow as we expected it would be. But it was good to have chinese for a change, considering we've been eating western foods weeks now. TTFN :) Ta Ta For Now

Hi all!!

It does seem to me that our blog has been abandoned for a while now. The last post published was months ago and if it wasn't because of the lazy day I was having today, I don't think I could be bothered to write anything. I think my brain is having a go at me. Ever since I finished my honours, I seriously can't be bothered to do anything required thinking *bleeeehhhh*. So I thought of writing something today. It's a good practice for my English too, right? right?

Last Sunday, Miss FDQ, Chow-Chow, & I went to Swan Valley for a lovely lunch at Chester. We reached the restaurant at 12ish and were the first customers to be seated. So I had time to take a photo of the deserted restaurant. 30 to 40 mins after we arrived, all the tables were suddenly packed! Hey, maybe we were customers who brought luck to the place?? :)

We had this amazing puff pastry tart as an entree. It was a warm puff pastry tart brushed with sundried tomato pesto, layered with red onion, vine-ripened tomato and oregano, topped with slices of buffalo mozzarella and simply served with rockets and basil. It was nice, sort of like eating a mini pizza.

As for the mains, Chow-Chow had the pork rib eye, which was grilled rib eye of pork served on bubble and squeak, topped with homemade apple and mustard chutney finished with a pork & cider sauce.

I had the Barramundi, which was pan fried fillet of barramundi gratinated with a triple cheese and herb crust. It was served on a bed of vanilla and lime scented mash potatoes and drizzled with semi dried tomato. The mash potatoes tasted different from any I've ever had so far and I thought it really suited the barramundi. Lovely!!! ^-^

Miss FDQ's main was the lamb fillet which was marinated in balsamic vinegar and fresh mint, served with roasted garlic potato mash and buttered broccolini and finished with herbed lamb juice.

As we were quite full, we decided to share the desserts. We ordered the sticky date pudding, which according to Chow-Chow "was the best she has ever eaten thus far & even better than Gucce's". The other dessert was croissant pudding, which was orange and white chocolate croissant pudding served with homemade Cointreau ice cream.

Chow2's "the best eaten sticky date pudding" with a pecan toffee sauce and brown bread ice cream. The brown bread ice cream was really yummy, tasted quite unique but refreshing. YUUMMMYYY

Riverbank Estate - Swan Valley

Helllloooo readers,

Chow-Chow & I visited Swan Valley today as we realized that we hadn't used our ebook for quite a while. We were planning on having lunch at Sandalford, but it turned out that there was an event happening, so we couldn't dine in. Our second choice was Riverbank Estate. We had never been there, and granted the place wasn't as grand as Sandalford, but the dining area was actually quite nice and cozy. We were seated outside, with the view of the vineyard, accompanied by annoying flies and humid Swan Valley weather.

I love the design of the menu, so I took a photo of it. Forgot my camera (again) today, so had to rely on blackberry.

We ordered a glass of classic sweet white and were given complementary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I ordered 5 spiced duck with something something. I honestly can't remember the full description of the dish as it was a special of the day, so the dish wasn't on the online menu. But it had cherry tomato and yummy creamy mashed potatoes. I just loved the whole thing. The food was amazing.

Chow-Chow ordered a herb crusted best end and confit shoulder of lamb, coicannon mash, garlic crisps, beetroot fondant, and basil juice. I loved her lamb too, with the meat was so tender and the rest of the components gave a perfect balance.

We also ordered a side dish of shoestring fries with sweet chilli sauce and grained mustard mayonnaise.

A meal wasn't perfect without dessert, so we ordered a sticky marmalade pudding with butterscotch sauce and, almond tuille, and cinnamon ice cream. The dessert was ok, but certainly not to die for. The butterscotch sauce was a bit too thick for my taste, although the cinnamon ice cream was nice.

RiverBank Estate is having a special, where you get a bottle of wine free when you purchase 2 bottles. So we bought a bottle each of classic sweet white and red, and get the 2007 celebration white free. It's really worth it. We spent $38 and got 3 bottles of wine. Pretty good, hey?

After that off we went to Margaret Rive Chocolate factory because Chow-Chow is a big fan of the fine champagne chocolate. She just bought a piece tho (a very small piece indeed) because she claims that she's on a diet (as I'm writing now at least). On our way home, we stopped by to buy white and black seedless grapes.

aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh....life is good :) bye for now... xoxo

The MIA FDQ is back

Hello hello helloooooooooooo!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011, HUNNY BUNNY SWEETIE PIESSSSS...
After what seems like FOREVER n EVER, FDQ is back in action (well, sort of).
I'm reporting live from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. If you ain't quite sure where this food-wonderland is location, feel free to Google map. It's somewhere at the tail of the dog, if u even understand what this means. (Well, literally the East Malaysia resembles a (cacat) dog with Sabah being the dog head and Sarawak being the body of the dog). Kuching is the capital city of Sarawak which is saturated with delicious local delicacies from kolo mee to laksa, kueh chap, satay, ice kacang, beef noodle to CHICKEN RICE!!! Not the Singapore chicken rice, it's the deep fried chicken type of chicken rice. Nevermind if you don't get what I meant, because I know you know what I meant. XD See, isn't our blog informative? You get FREE GEOGRAPHY LESSON for free! =) Tourism Board of Malaysia should consider me to be their ambassador instead. *blows nails*


Anyhooo..I just got back from Johor Baru (the Malaysian state closest to Singapore). After 6 days of constant feasting, 5 x crabs, 3 x bak kut teh, 3 x fish, 2 x stewed pork, 2 x prawns, 2 x lobsters n 4583845 mouthful of junk foods, I OFFICIALLY DECLARE THAT FDQ NEEDS INTENSE DIET ROUTINE NOW. Pftt... But twas a good trip. Pls dont get me started on the massive shopping Mummy FDQ did in JB. She was <---------------this-----------> close to bringing the whole JB back to Kuching. -_______-"

Before I start to bore anyone, it's time to seal this post with a kiss. Well done if you managed to read my post this far! This means we are such boring ppl, we desperately need more things to do before we got covered by moulds.

Sorry ppl, was trying to upload some photos of the foods I've tried in JB but stupid dumb dumb blogspot doesnt let me to do so. My apologies. Let's just imagine the yummy creamy salted egg mud crab...




Much love,
FDQ
*big barney hug*

Crumpet - Cinnamon Club - C15 Espresso

Happy New Year to our dearest readers :)

Miss FDQ is still on holiday (geez, it's been more than a month, she must have been living life to its fullest atm), so that's left me, Chow-Chow, and Stewie in Perth.

CC & I went to crumpet for lunch and the place was deserted. I LOVE IT. Try to go to Crumpet on Saturday morning, and you'll be lucky to find a table. It's always crowded from 8am onwards up to, idk, 11ish? We went at 12:30 tho, so we literally owned the place. Anw, we realized that they have a new menu, so CC decided to try the corn fritters while I tried the eggs benedict. CC's corn fritters looked sooo yummy when it arrived, and tasted even yummier. My eggs benedict on the other hand tho wasn't disappointing but wasn't wow either.

We didn't have any plan for the evening, but decided to have Indian. Honestly, I'm not a fan of Indian food, but CC & Stewie seemed so keen on having Indian. According to Stewie, she's a sucker for Indian (but then, she's a sucker for everything). Off we went to Cinnamon Club in Applecross. We didn't order much food, just a slice of garlic naan, and a slice of plain naan. We only had 3 mains: Butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, & palak paneer. At the end dinner, we were quite full already, but weren't quite satisfied without desserts. Then we went to C15 espresso cafe across the restaurant, which we had been eyeing for a while but hadn't had a chance to try.

We were quite dissapointed when we saw the cakes selection. It wasn't too many to choose from, and if miss FDQ were here, she would describe the cakes as "too commercial". So we just ordered hot chocolate, and a big slice of bacci cake. The cake wasn't warmed up, thus a bit too hard for our taste. And hot chocolate was just standard. But it was a lovely night nevertheless.

Left: Crumpet's corn fritters. Right: Crumpet's eggs benedict

Cinnamon club's: garlic & plain naan, butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, & palak paneer.

C15's hot chocolate & bacci cake.

Tony Roma's Perth

Dearest readers,

Today Chow-Chow, Mr D (our housemate), and I went to Tony Roma's for dinner. This is what I reckoned from my previous visit, the place was cosy but finding parking is a hassle. I hate having to go round and round to find a free parking spot. Anyway, Mr D was driving his new VW tonight, which was fine by me :)

We kinda already knew what we wanted, so when we were presented with the menu, we just had a quick glance, and ordered straight away. We had a full onion loaf, which is one of the best thing that has ever happened to Tony Roma's. The onion ring is actually giant hand cut onions, breaded, deep fried and served with BBQ mayo dipping sauce.

Each of us ordered a different main. I, for instance always adore the carolina honey, so that was what I ordered. I had french fries and ranch style beans as the side. Chow-Chow was having the original baby back ribs with the same side dishes as mine. Mr D had the rib combo, which was half slab of pork rib with 160g top sirloin and corn & mash potatoes as the side dishes.

We were all super full by the time we finished our mains, but I had this craving for the chocolate avalance. Back home in Jakarta, Tony Roma's serves chocolate brownies in a hot pan with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, and I swear to God, the brownies were HEAVEN. The chocolate avalance was presented in a cocktail glass instead of a hot pan, but the texture, the richness of the chocolate was actually pretty similar. So, two thumbs up for the dessert :)

Chow-Chow's original baby back ribs


The St-Louis style ribs with carolina honey sauce


Mr D's rib combo with top sirloin


Chocolate Avalance

The Silver Spoon - Victoria Park

Dear readers,

I've been soooo busy working I could barely have time to breathe. Christmas is always the busiest time at work, with Coles opens 7 days a week in December, meaning I am working 7 days a week too :) sad heyyy??

Anyway, I was working yesterday (I dont usually work Saturdays) and all I could think about was FOOD FOOD FOOD. I was too tired so I didnt wanna drive too far, hence Vic Park was our choice of fine dining place for this Saturday. It was just me & Chow-Chow again this week, I couldnt be bothered asking friends out and organizing dinners & stuff. Well, maybe next month after all the craziness at work slows down a bit.

At The Silver Spoon we ended up (if you've watched Star Wars, you'll realize that's how Master Yoda arranges his wordings). ok ok ok, I'm in a hurry here, cos Mr D almost is almost done with his cooking and we're about to have dinner. Let's jump straight to the menu then.

Oooohhh, I need to mention something though. Chow-Chow has been going to the gym frequently lately because next year her big sis is getting married, and she needs to LOSE weight desperately in order to fit into her dress which she hasnt even had yet. So, Chow-Chow's stomach is kinda shrinking a bit here. That makes us jump straight to main instead of trying out the entree. Cos we were sparing some space for dessert as well.

Chow-Chow's main was really fabulous I think. She had the lamb cutlet, slow cooked shoulder, squash, corquette (now I know what a corquette is), baby aubergine, and rosemary juice. While I had the beef two ways which was roast fillet, braised cheek, parsnip, spinach, and baby carrots. The mains were good, but they werent to die for.

The dessert on the other hand, was SUPERB and to die for! Seriously that good. We shared a white chocolate & passionfruit tart with passionfruit cloud and sorbet. Oh My God, I gotta tell you, the passionfruit tart was amazing, and the sorbet was really refreshing and smooth. Another dessert that we tried berry, melon and tapoica salad with creme fraiche. It was quite a unique combination and very fruity, almost sensational. I like how it was served in a glass and it's got different layers with very interesting colour. Overall, dessert was really awesome, heart it :)

.

Here are some of the photos taken ;)

Warning: bear with the photos, I forgot my camera, so we had to stick with blackberry instead

Lamb shank


Beef two ways


White chocolate & passionfruit tart


berry, melon, & tapioca salad with creme fraiche