07 November 2013

Great Chefs at Angliss | Tony Twitchett of Taxi Dining Room

I’ve been very busy lately since I have family visiting me from overseas. Trying to juggle keeping them entertained with work is difficult and added to that, my boyf (Chris) has his aunt and uncle visiting as well!
It’s been a busy month and will continue to be a busy month when another group come to visit next Thursday but it’s always lovely to see my cousins after such a long time.

I recently had 5 days off work due to the Melbourne cup public holiday (actually I took Friday off). On Friday, Chris and I went with his mum, her friends and his aunt and uncle to William Angliss for lunch. My brother and his girlf were on another table (Sorry to crash your date hehe)

William Angliss is a school specialising in culinary and hospitality. For their final year student chefs, they have a special restaurant – Angliss restaurant where they host various events. Occasionally, they’ll have themed buffets cooked by the students and attended to by their hospitality students. Everything is presented like an actual restaurant; it even has a bar connected. Wasn’t a fan of the buffet last time we went, everything seemed a little overcooked.


On Friday, they had their last Great Chefs at Angliss Program. This program attracts many big names in the cooking world (all of whom have their own famous restaurant in Melbourne) and gets their top chefs to lead and teach the students how to cook their specialty dishes. Lunch has 3 courses with wines for each course and dinner is 4 courses with wines to accompany. I was so excited!

We booked for the Friday lunch session – the head chef was Tony Twitchett from the famous Taxi restaurant in Melbourne’s Federation Square and wines sponsored from Tahbilk winery.

We began with a fresh bun with butter, the bun was so well made and very fresh. The outside was a little crispy and the inside was super soft. I love fresh bread! 


This was then followed with our entrée, Smoked brook trout, horseradish cream, capers and salmon roe. Omgoodness, this was delicious! I’m usually not a fan of fish but I literally ate everything off the plate! It was that good. This course was paired with a Rosanne-Marsanne-Viognier, which is a white wine and our favourite wine for the afternoon.

The staffs there were so well trained, so soon as something is empty, they’ll take it away or fill it up for you. We also ordered a lemon lime bitters because Chris had to drive that day and wasn’t allowed to drink too much. The great thing about this place is that all drinks are included in the $50pp cost. So cheap!

The main was a crispy Szechuan duck, pumpkin daikon salad and 3 spice caramel sauce paired with a Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre red wine. The duck was melt-in-your-mouth delicious, it was really well cooked and the sauce was divine! The pumpkin salad added a good touch to it and helped to cleanse your palette so the sauce is not too overwhelming. Chris said this dish was very well put together.

We were all looking forward to the dessert wine – since the majority of our table likes our wines sweeter and usually dessert wines are sweeter but it let us down. The wine they paired with the dessert was a Tahbilk Chardonnay Pinot Noir which was nothing close to sweet. The dessert however, was not a letdown. We had a Myrtleford buttermilk, champagne rhubarb and strawberry foam. Presentation was beautiful and taste was just as beautiful!

Definitely will come back to Great Chefs at Angliss 2014, Chris and I already have two chefs in mind (Taxi chef – Tony Twitchett been one of them) so when the schedule comes out in February 2014, we’ll be rushing to book those two sessions.

Angliss Restaurant
550 Little Lonsdale Street
Melbourne VIC 3000 


Tony Twitchett’s restaurant:


Taxi Dining Room
Level 1, Transport Hotel, Federation Square/Flinders Walk,
Melbourne VIC 3000

04 November 2013

Kayaking

Following our Chez Drè lunch - read about that here, we went to Studley park to make the most of the nice warm weather and go kayaking. Yay!


Personally, I love kayaking,takes me away from my busy lifestyle and let's me relax with nature. Not forgetting that it's also a great workout!! Boy, did my arms hurt afterwards.

As Chris and I have kayaked before, we told Cassy and Ethan to come with shorts and sandals as there's a high probability that they'll get a little wet from the splash back when you move your oars. We all got changed, slapped our sunscreen on and booked 2 two-seater kayaks for 1 hour, put our life jackets on then off we went!


 Our plan was to go 35 mins one way and 25 mins back (since coming back is a lot easier once you're familiar with the technique) but that was not the case with Cassy and Ethan. The both of them kept circling around and the two were so brave that they started rocking the kayak to get it to move. Thankfully they did not capsize!

They got a little better after the crash course from Chris and I but in the end, we thought we should start heading back earlier since they might meet so trouble on the way back to the boathouse.

Chris and I were so far ahead of them that we lost sight of them so we decided to get out at the one hour mark (so we can get our deposit back).

Afterwards, we got milo ice cream to re-energise then went for dinner and movies. We watched 'Gravity'. Lucky me got a buy 1 get 1 free voucher on my movie card. Yay! We enjoyed the movie and company a lot.

Studley Park Boathouse
1 Boathouse Road, 
Kew, 3101,
Victoria, Australia

28 October 2013

Chez Dré

Chez Dré is a café situated opposite the famous South Melbourne market. It’s situated at the end of an alley way and looks like an old factory but the food there is amazing!

Went there on a Saturday with Chris, Cassy and Ethan for brunch before our kayaking adventures.


We were blessed with warm weather that day – it was so beautiful compared to the recent rain that we have been having in Melbourne (what happened to Spring!?)

I’ve been to this café three times now and all three time, I’ve ordered their duck sandwich. Amazzzzing! The duck is cooked so well, it melts in your mouth and I’ve never had bread that has been toasted so well.

Cassy and Ethan shared a steak sandwich – which was also amazing!


I got a karmarama juice which contained 9 different fruits. 100% fruit juice = super healthy

And the others got ice coffee, delicious and perfect for the warm weather. (All three of them drank their ice coffees before I had a chance to snap a pic! )

We also decided to spoil ourselves by ordering 2 desserts between the 4 of us. I’ve heard great things about their desserts especially their salted caramel macaron – so that’s what I chose and it didn't fail to meet my expectations!

And Ethan chose the lychee coconut jelly pudding – usually I don’t like the taste of coconut but it was very subtle and the lychee taste was beautiful!
Look at the detailing! So intricate!

Definitely coming back to try some other desserts! Look at their range. Wooww!

We then walked across the road – partly to help digest and partly to get Ethan some oysters. There’s a few oyster bars there, selling $1 for one fresh oyster. Ethan ordered 12 to share with Cassy. Oyster shots! Not Chris and my thing – we hate raw oysters!!


Chez Dré
285-287 Coventry Street,
South Melbourne, 3205
Victoria, Australia

15 October 2013

Alex's Birthday

Chris has been recommending a Japanese Restaurant called Shira Nui to his friends for a while now. We finally had the chance to go there to celebrate Alex's birthday.

It's a small restaurant so we had to book earlier and thankfully secure the last table for 8!

The food there is melt-in-your-mouth amazing!

Happy Birthday, Alex!
Below is what we ate that night, seriously making myself so hungry now. Definitely coming again!

Was such a wonderful night filled with great food and awesome company! Going to come again to try the teppanyaki bench!

Shira Nui
247 Springvale Road,
Glen Waverley, 3150
Victoria, Australia

06 October 2013

24

It was my birthday 3 days ago (Oct 3rd). Been busy catching up with family and friends the last few days. 

We don’t really celebrate birthdays in my household (apart from a small dinner every year) but this year I felt so loved on my day. I actually took the day off work to spend with my parents. I don’t have the privilege to see them much lately because all our working schedules clash L
After my wonderful sleep in, I woke up to find two red eggs on the table with a card from the family. So loved 



The weather was horrible that morning so dad and I just stayed at home and watched dramas the whole morning until he had to head off to work. Mum came home about 3.5 hours after that and she took me out to have coffees and muffins. Nice catching up with her, love her so much!

For dinner, my boy planned to take me out on a surprise dinner and he even prepared two gifts for me that night. Was so surprised because he usually finds it hard to keep secrets but I was thoroughly impressed (even though not everything went according to plan). He told me that he was taking me out for a dinner for two at a restaurant his sis recommended to him. I was really excited.

When we finally found parking, Chris was told that they actually gave our table away because we were late (doesn't help when the restaurant don't answer their phones - not impressed!!). I suggested we go to a different restaurant but Chris insisted that we go to this restaurant (even if there was no table for us). I started to think something was up and then Chris finally couldn't hold it any longer so he blurted and told me that my two good friends were there waiting for me!! 

 

The restaurant - Cookie - ended up preparing another table for us. They seated us in the bar section which was a lot noisier and had no table service but the food was amazing!

I had such an amazing night, haven't been so happy in a long time. Finished the night off with some nitrogen ice cream. Yumm~

Thanks to my friends and family for all your birthday wishes and gifts. I am really blessed to have you all in my life. I love you all very much x ♥ 

Also, special thanks to Chris for spoiling me rotten and planning so much for my day and thanks to Cassy and Ethan for surprising me x

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