Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label duck. Show all posts

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

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

25 September 2013

Simon's Peiking Duck

Chris and I caught up with our friends, Cassy and Ethan for a dinner over Peking Duck. We decided to go to Simon's Peiking Duck. This is one of those places where their speciality is Peking Duck and everything else on their menu isn't all that great. The restaurant is really busy, so busy that they had to split into two dining sessions - 6pm and 8pm. We booked almost 2 weeks in advance for the 6pm session on a Saturday night. We decided to order 2 ducks for the night between 4 of us (as recommended by the waiter upon booking). You have to order the ducks beforehand otherwise they'll have no ducks for you and you'll have to order something from their menu. 


There are two duck sets available, one with noodles and one without. Duck soup, bean sprouts and peking duck is included in both sets. We decided to have one of each set. (Since it was Cassy and Ethan's first time dining at this restaurant, they wanted to try a bit of everything.) Ethan didn't try much since he came a whole hour late and had a super big and super late lunch so wasn't all that hungry.

If you're expecting 5 star service, this is definitely not the place for you. It's really loud - like a typical Chinese restaurant (also proven with the incorrect spelling in the name of the restaurant) and lacks service - no body cares about you unless you call them over. The owner, Simon does have a sense of humor though, he goes around table by table to teach you how to fold your peking duck - and don't you dare wrap it incorrectly!


Another thing I didn't like was that they tried to get us to eat faster so they can prepare the tables for the next session. We weren't even done with the first part of the meal and they kept piling the food on our tiny table. No time for us to sit around and enjoy the good food and the company.

Oh, and this place is cash only - another boo! But definitely worth trying.



Simon's Peiking Duck
197B Middleborough Road,
Box Hill South, 3128

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