Australia Day & Farewell High Tea at Le Jardin, Palazzo Versace

The ladies planned a farewell outing for one of our good friends who is moving back to Singapore. Our initial plan for a picnic in the beach had to be cancelled due to rainy weather. We had to look for someplace indoor that is still fun and memorable. After looking and asking around for suggestions, we came across Palazzo Versace. As none of us have been there before, we decided to give it a go and head down to the lobby bar, Le Jardin for High Tea.

Le Jardin is a casual restaurant located right at the lobby. Besides high tea, it serves light meals such as antipasti, cheese, oysters and a range of salads.

We ordered the Fashionista High Tea ($45pp) that is available between 11am to 5pm. High tea was served in a 3-tier stand, shared two ways. 

The bottom tier consists of a quiche, a sausage roll and 4 scones. With only a single quiche and sausage roll, we either had to fight for it, or cut it in half to share. We went for the more civilised way and cut it in half so we both could have a taste.

We had a choice of apricot, cherry and strawberry Bonne Maman preserves to go with the scones. After tasting all three, I have to say that the classic scones with strawberry jam and cream is still the best.

The second tier consists of an assortment of sandwiches (ham and cheese, smoked salmon and egg) and sliced bread with dip.

The top tier consisted of a range of sweets themed around Australia Day: meringue with passionfruit curd, lamington, chocolate éclair, fruit tart, chocolate cakepop, chocolate macaron, tiramisu chocolate cup, lemon mini cupcake and macadamia tart.

Overall, we found the food to be just average. My least favourite was the fruit tart because the pastry was too soggy and the chocolate cakepop which was overly sweet. On the other hand, I loved the macadamia tart – crumbly pastry, nutty but not sickly sweet. The sundried tomato dip was another favourite which went really well with the toasted bread.

Throughout the service, we noticed that the waitresses were rather unfriendly and did not smile even once. Although it had never bothered me in the past, this was quite obvious and slightly uncomfortable. For a classy hotel/restaurant like this, I expected a higher level of customer service.

In the end, the most important thing is that we enjoyed ourselves and had a few good laughs along the way. Which we did. :)



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Food from the New Zealand Cruise Holidays

Having recently retuned from a cruise to New Zealand, I'm getting over the result of a good holiday - or what I would say, 'overeating'. I had a wonderful time in the ship, but as a result, now need to shed a few kilos.

The showcase of pictures below are the different meals I have indulged in over the 2 weeks period. Enjoy!

 

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Christmas Tree Cookie

Christmas brings about the spirit of giving. It is not only a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but the demonstration of God’s giving spirit. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

In the midst of this festive season, we have decided to give something home-baked to our friends. The idea of a Christmas Tree Cookie came about from a recent high tea visit with my friend. It is simple and yet pretty. The recipe below came from Exclusively Food, which I have tried several times and loved.

Ingredients:
220 grams of softened butter
80 grams of icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
300 grams of plain flour
About 2 teaspoons of plain flour (to flour the cutters)
1 packet of Queen Royal Icing

1. Beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until mixture is creamy.
2. Using a spoon or electric mixer/beaters on very low speed, incorporate the flour into the butter. mixture (don’t over-mix the dough). It is normal for the dough to be soft.
3. Cover dough with cling wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (150 degrees Celsius fan-forced).
5. Take half of the dough out from the fridge and form a round ball.
6. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll it out to a thickness of 6mm.
7. Flour the cutters and cut it out into desired shape.

8. Bake cookies until they are a light golden colour on the edges. The baking time required will be influenced by the size of the cutter used. The Christmas Tree Cookies were baked for 15 minutes.
9. Cool cooked cookies on tray for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Decorate the cookies as desired with royal icing. I used a packet of Queen Royal Icing (330 grams of icing and 50 grams of water).

I doubled the recipe and made about 60 cookies. It was a fun gift and well suited for the season. Hope you have sorted out all your Christmas presents and baking. Enjoy this wonderful season!

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Blackforest Cake

For as long as I can remember, D has always wanted a cheese cake for his birthday. This year, he decided to break tradition and asked for a Blackforest cake instead. I have never made a Blackforest cake before, but decided to take up the challenge and started looking for good (and easy) recipe.

The only one that came to mind was the Masterchef Blackforest cake that we have been drooling over on TV. However, after reading through the ingredients list and steps, I have decided to search again for something ... erm .. more time efficient.

A girlfriend pointed me to a recipe at Taste.com which looked really easy and practical, so I decided to do that instead (with a bit of modification).

Ingredients:
1 Chocolate cake
670g jar of morello cherries
2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
600ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon of castor sugar
6-10 cherries with stem
Chocolate Rice or Chocolate Chips for decoration

Note: I use a packed of Greens chocolate cake mix for this recipe. Due to limited time, I divided the steps into multiple days. Of course, you can make this cake in one day, allowing time for the cake and cherries mix to cool.

Steps:
Day 1 - Cake
1. Bake the cake and cut it into 3 layers.

Day 2 – Cherries
2.  Place cherries and 160g of the juice in a saucepan with sugar and cornflour.
3. Stir over low heat until mixture boils. Transfer into a large bowl and leave it to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.

Day 3 – Cream and Assembly
4. Beat cream and castor sugar until firm peaks form.
5. Place the first layer of cake on the cake board.
6. Spread the cherries mixture and a thin layer of cream.

7. Repeat the cherries and cream mixture with the second layer.

8. Place the final layer on top.
9. Add some cream on top and spread evenly. I have decorated this with piped rosette, cherries and chocolate chips.

And the result was amazing! D was surprised to see that I could pull that off so beautifully. Oh no, does that mean that he’ll give me a harder challenge next year?


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The Bun Mobile

I have wanted to visit The Bun Mobile for quite some time and finally managed to track them down a couple of weeks ago at Kangaroo Point.

I think they have brought a revolution to street food in Brisbane. Their concept is simple; it is just a mobile truck selling buns. The location changes daily, but thankfully they have a good social media presence and constantly update their locations on the website and Twitter.

We ordered the Wagyu Bun ($8) and Chicken Bun ($8) from the standard menu and decided to try their specials of the night: Taiwanese Pork ($10) and Mango Parfait ($10).

We were not quite impressed by the wagyu bun: Slow Cooked Wagyu Beef, Butter Lettuce, Soy Pickled Shitake Mushrooms and Red Dragon Sauce. We found the wagyu to be a bit tough and the flavour combo slightly odd to our liking.

Our favourite was the chicken bun: Char Grilled Teriyaki Chicken, Slaw with Julianne Carrot and Mint, Japanese Mayo and Hoisin Sauce. It has good combination of flavours and a delight to eat.

The pork bun is very much similar to the ones we get at the Taiwanese breakfast shop at Market Square, except a bit fancier: Braised Pork Belly, Pickled Mustard Greens, Sugared Peanuts, Coriander and Ginger and Orange Hoisin. The flavour was great, meat was tender, but there were too much fat on the pork (it’s pork belly after all).

 

Finally the dessert bun, mango parfait: Fresh Cut Mango, Greek Yoghurt, Mascarpone Cream, Macadamia and Ginger Crunch. It was fresh and refreshing for a hot night and the perfect way to end the meal.

It was a bit messy to eat with food and sauces going all over your face and hand....but again, who cares? We enjoyed a bit of casualness once a while in our dining experience.


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High Tea at McMahon's Restaurant

Continuing on our food journey and post-exam celebrations, a couple of girlfriends and I headed to McMahon’s Restaurant at Quay West for high tea. The normal price was $38 each, but thankfully we had a Spreets two-for-one voucher.

There was a big storm when we arrived and it was quite hard to get parking closer to the place (street parking is off-limits on weekends). Therefore, we decided to give ourselves a treat and used the valet parking at the hotel. We drove right up to the entrance, handed the key to the valet and off we went. The valet service costs $30, but since we carpooled and shared the cost, it worked out alright.

Unlike some other tea houses that provide a more Victorian style setting, the restaurant is quite modern but still has a classy touch. There is even a little leaflet with tea-etiquette information. It was quite informative and we had a good time ‘scoring’ ourselves against it.

 

High tea was served on a three-tiered stand with an additional plate of scones.

The first tier had a selection of assorted sandwiches. We found the sandwiches to be just average.

 

The second tier was quiches. The pastry was short, crumbly and very buttery.  I loved it!

The third tier had a selection of assorted desserts. The downside was that there was only one of each, so we had to cut it three-ways for sharing. All I can say was that cutting delicate desserts three-ways was a little messy. My favourite was the white chocolate cheesecake with lavender cream. The lemon tart and lemon meringue pie were both too citrusy for me.

The unanimous favourite that day was the scones – light and fluffy, not too crumbly or cakey.

Overall, we enjoyed the experience as it was a good change from having high tea at a traditional tea room.



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Post exams celebration @ ARIA Brisbane

Dear friends and readers,

I am finally back in blogosphere. The past month has been very hectic with work, study and other commitments. I am glad to announce that I completed my final exams last Friday and have regained my freedom. Hooray!

Since Friday, I have had multiple post-uni celebrations with family and friends, starting with lunch at ARIA right after the exam.

ARIA does lunch 'specials' for $36 for 1 course, $56 for 2 courses and $72 for 3 courses.

Whilst D settled for two courses I was greedy and went for three.  It was a celebration for me after all :)

We started with entree of twice cooked pork belly with apple puree and endive salad and seared scallop served with smoked pork, watercress and almond gazpacho.  Pork belly was very tender and went very well with the apple puree.  Pork and apple, definitely the perfect match. 



Twice-cooked Pork Belly with Apple Puree and Endive Salad

The smokiness of the pork covered the entire scallop dish, but surprisingly tasted good. D wasn't a fan of scallop, but enjoyed the smoky taste of the scallops.



Seared Scallop served with Smoked Pork, Watercress and Almond Gazpacho

For mains, I had the roast lamb cutlet and confit breast with caponata, baby peppers and spinach puree and D had the sirloin steak. The lamb cutlet was really tender and tasty.  However, I find the lamb breast a bit too gamey for me.



Lamb Cutlet and Confit Breast with Caponata, Baby Peppers and Spinach Puree

The steak looked simple, but it was cooked to perfection - medium-rare, just as how we wanted it to be.  The waitstaff brought it out with a selection of sauce: bearnaise, chimichurri, mustard and horseradish.  D asked for the bearnaise and chimichurri.  Personally, I preferred the creaminess of the bearnaise and secretly wished I ordered the steak instead =P



Sirloin Steak

For desserts, we shared the black forest with cherry sorbet, mascarpone and chocolate jelly.  The dish looked more like a deconstructed black forest.  The individual elements looked pretty on the plated, but tasted better when combined together.



Black Forest with Cherry Sorbet, Mascarpone and Chocolate Jelly

To finish off, we were served with a complimentary petit fours.   The theme was 'orange': orange flavoured turkish delight with a really strong blood-orange gel, orange truffle and some-sort of an orange cake.



Petit Fours

I went to ARIA a couple of years ago for dinner and was a bit disappointed.  I must say that this lunch experience has changed my mind about ARIA.  I really enjoyed the food and service (or I could be really tired after a long week and grateful that my exams was over).





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berryme

Berryme is a cute-looking frozen yoghurt shop located in Kelvin Grove Village. Pink walls, white tables and pastel green chairs - looks fresh and cute for a dessert shop.

The self-serve concept is very simple. Pick a cup, Choose flavour(s), Add toppings & Weigh and pay.

I have tried all the flavours and liked them all. If I has to pick only 2 favourites then it would be chocolate and green tea.

Apparently it is really healthy and good for you. Check out their marketing propaganda on the cup and also on their wall.

This has become my favourite after lunch snack. I've been there many time over the past few weeks and have introduced some of my friends and workmates to it too. This is a great and healthy snack for the upcoming warmer months.



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