Part 2 - Food Porn Dining Out: Pancake Parlour, Laurent Bakery, Crown Casino

Here's Part 2 of my food adventures - Dining Out Edition

Pancake Parlour Lunch Special is a dish with chips, potato pancake and fried fish. Yum! And it was less than $12, which isn't that bad :)

The fish itself was cooked nicely, given the number of people at the restaurant that day, I'm glad it wasn't overcooked. The potato pancake was delicious, and so were the thinner crispier pieces of chips! I kind of wished I had ordered the Salad option though. The chips (or fries, actually) were thick cut so they weighed down the meal in general. The potato pancake on its own is a good amount of substance for me, so having both was a bit excessive.

Pancake Parlour: Fish + Chips and Potato Pancake

Onto pastry! This was a pear danish or pear puff from Laurent Bakery.The pastry itself was nice, and the pear was  naturally sweet, so it didn't feel like too much sugar at all - just about right. I like it, although it's not life-changing. The shape is so cute though!

Pear Puff Pastry

After a long night at work, our boss took us to Crown Casino for late night! So I went for a large bowl of noodle soup with crispy pork. Let me first say that I was shocked when I saw the size. It's humungous, like my jaw drops a bit kind of big. There was so much in that one bowl for me that I could not finish everything. The soup and the actual noodles were nice, but I still find that the crispy pork was waaaaaaaaaayyy too salty, unlike how they make it back home in Thailand. Boo. Oh, well. It was still a pretty good meal in general.

Crispy Pork Noodle Soup + Corona, because I can

And what did I have with it? Why ask? A Corona >__< hehe

Alrighty. Off to bed for now (It's 5 am oops). Back tmr with more!

Spiga Cafe Restaurant for a late lunch and San Churro for dessert (+late night meal)

So I went for a late lunch with a friend from high school today! It was pouring so we were pretty much stuck in Melbourne Central, which led to this impromptu lunch at Spiga.

My friend ordered a pizza, but I can't recall the name of it, other than that it was something along the lines of Cappricio? Maybe.













I ordered a risotto with mushrooms and dill and shaved Parmesan on top. Loved the salty Parmesan in contrast to the risotto. As for the rice itself, it was okay. I was pretty hungry at that point though, so it didn't really matter lol













Then it stopped raining - thank goodness. So we decided to go for dessert at San Churro.  My friend chose a hot milk chocolate whilst I chose the flat white. Yay for my daily coffee fix!















 My friend's Hot Milk Chocolate which came with marshmallows!

 Yay for my daily coffee fix :)

We had the churros for two set, which was really yummy! It was cold outside too, so having something warm was a plus. My friend chose the milk chocolate cup as the dipping sauce for the churros. As for me, of course no hesitation whatsoever- the dark chocolate.

 Here's a close-up of 'my side' lol

















We were on our way back to the station when we saw this rainbow right near the state library! Beautiful :)

After 6-6.5 hrs of work (standing, cooking, serving, cleaning tables etc), the boss treated us to some awesome late night at a Chinese restaurant in Box Hill. We were tired as it was already 12:30am and ordered quite a bit of food including a mixed claypot dish (not pictured), a century and pork congee (not pictured, but absolutely delicious) as well as roasted duck and crispy pork belly.





 I'm sorry let me repeat that. Holy Macarony we had Crispy Pork Belly for late night :D (somebody hit the 'pause' button for my so-called DIET, please) lol













It was definitely a great day spent (eating). Had a great time catching up with my friend as well as work and the late night meal :)

Gotta go to bed now- it's 3:34 am already!

xoxo

Bueno, como que es lo recomendado..

Estoy metido en el programa de interpretación y traducción y esta mañana el profesor nos ha dicho que deberíamos practicar nuestras lenguas elegidas (se dice LOTE en inglés - Language Other Than English) en cualquier manera posible. Una de las recomendaciones que dio fue lo siguiente: Escribir un correo, un artículo o una entrada en un diario etc. Bueno, como que es lo recomendado - trataré de hacerlo ahorita aquí en mi blog digital. Pero ¿De qué debería yo platicar? Entonces, empezamos primero con mi vida cotidiana.

Como parte de una sessión que se llama "workshop" aquí en nuestra universidad, necesitamos que preparar una presentación oral para ese jueves. Sería una presentación en 2 minutos y no más, de cualquier cosa que queramos. Estoy pensando en las posibilidades de temas y a mi megusta el tema de música en películas. Eso se refiere a la música - normalmente clásica o música sin letras que utilizan en el fondo de lo que está pasando en la historia principal. No hay tantas personas que entran en el cine y esperan conscientemente música bien compuesto, arreglado en maneras que complementan o refuerzan el trama. Pero yo sí. En mi opinión es muy importante ese aspecto musical. Mire. La película famosa de Hollywood que se llama "Inception" no había producido los mismos efectos en nuestras imaginaciones sin el apoyo de la melodía. Imagine la escena donde nos introduce el protagonista ese sub-mundo adentro de la consciencia; un mundo donde parecen los edificios en la ciudad al revés  - completamente de vuelta en comparación con lo que esperemos lógicamente. La música que acompaña esta escena enfatiza los sentimientos de grandiosidad y instiga en nuestra alma un miedo de lo misterioso y de lo desconocido tan como un sobrecogimiento de lo majestuoso. Eso me parece genial :)

Continuaremos mañana!

A Rosy Cozy Feeling

A rosy cozy feeling - from rose tea, that is! A cup of tea is always something I enjoy no matter where I am in the world :) My housemate gave me some roses to put in hot water on a rainy day or for just before bedtime. I'm not usually a fan of teas which smell of flowers, especially roses in general. I feel as though I'm drinking old ladies' perfume. The smell of "rose teas" is usually too overpowering for me (although some people might like it, a pungent smell of flowers is not my cup of tea - pun intended! lol).

Rose Tea in my fav blue mug

But putting in just a few rose buds like these is another matter altogether, for you can control the "strength" of the aroma. When I use only a bit, the aroma is present, but ever so gently - kind of hard to explain. There's a finesse that results from restraint. Hmmmmmm ~

A rainy day and some updates of this past week

Last night was really warm, to the point where I had to turn on my mini fan (placed right next to my computer as I'm writing this lol). Which is probably why it rained so much today in Melb. Since I'm home regardless, I thought it was actually quite nice. I'm sure this would be entirely different if I were out without an umbrella though hehe

Valentine's day wasn't all that valentine-like, since it was enrollment day. It was still nice to meet some new people and make some friends :) My housemate and I went to Boxhill afterwards, which was another Asian part of town where we ended up getting Asian groceries. It was a good bonding time for us, as we talked and I found that we were more similar than I had anticipated. I know she's not reading this, but I'd still make a mental note to thank her again soon.

I had taken a photo as a Valentine's card and sent it to my bf via email/fb and he loved it! ^__^ Yay!! Receiving his email on Valentine's night with sweet words made me smile. It was so heart-warming that he thought of me. Looking forward to having our own Valentine's day when I visit him in Japan this July <3
kyaaaaaaaaaaa
Love u

First few days in Melbourne

Salmon Avocado Roll >__<

So... I'm finally in Melbourne, Australia!!! Crazy how time flew by.. My dad left a few hours ago and I'm still feeling a bit down because of that, but it's getting progressively better. We came here a few days ago and he really was a leader - my room is now a complete survival unit hahaha. He was so well-prepared with everything so it just all came together. And he called me before the plane took off, saying how he say a key-chain that he thought I'd like and bought it for me. So thoughtful. :) Miss you Daddy!

Anyway - I'm going to be blogging more because it will be like a way of recording my life here in Melbourne. It'll soon be a whirlwind of days, new experiences, people and stories, so I want to look back and see how my life changed over time.

My first snack in Melbourne the other day - with a cup of coffee in hand, whilst sitting and talking with my dad on the balcony right outside my bedroom - Salmon Avocado Roll!


I went to Melbourne city yesterday and it was actually pretty fun! My new housemate took me and my dad for a little lunch in China town, and a tour around some places in the city.

Daddy looking at the city :)

Lunch @ Chinatown in Melb - Braised Pork Belly with Rice

A view of the Yarra River - so beautiful~

I'm liking the weather in Melbourne so far! Sunny and breezy :) It's starting to look like rain as I'm writing this, and the weather forecast says rain for tomorrow though :( I guess we'll see!