11.10.11 Sal and I

TOKYO DELI

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Life is funny at times. You never know where you will find yourself say in a weeks' time, a month's time, a year's time or even five years to ten years time. My pen pal relationship with Sal commenced when she left Malaysia for Melbourne when we were only 14 year olds. She started out as a friend's friend.

Who knew that after 13 years of her moving and our frequent correspondence would see me moving here permanently to Melbourne this year. And who knew that we would be able to hang out every once in awhile and go traipsing about indulging in coffee and fattening cakes!! ;p

Sal brought me to Tokyo Deli at Elsternwick. This suburb is pretty far from where I live but near to where she lives. I've been here once before and LOVED the Japanese food that we had; she had a bento set and I had the beef terriyaki.

This shop is interesting as part of the shop serves as an eatery with tables and chairs for patrons to order food, sit and eat. The other part is like a grocery shop that sells Japanese and Korean food. I had the same dish as before.

My delicious beef terriyaki that cost AUD8.50.

Sal's pork burger with rice going for AUD8.50.

Sal's white and newly bought Samsung Galaxy S2 looking sleek!

The beef terriyaki was as delicious as I remembered it to be. Tasty and came in good portion. There was meat, some vege, overall a well balanced meal!

Next up, after our meal, we adjourned a few shops down to Aviv, an awesome bakery shop that is just filled with lots of lovely puffs and pastries to satiate ones sweet tooth.

This is my second time coming here and you know how sometimes you step into a shop and you are spoilt for choices; everything you see just looks yummy and screaming to be eaten, well, this shop brought about those guilty feelings.

I know I should resist temptation and not eat more than I should especially sweet stuff. So much for losing weight for my big day. LOL. As you can see, the battle was lost the moment I stepped into the shop.

Sal wanted her Orange cake whilst I wanted the Vanilla Slice. The Vanilla Slice was just as good as the first time I had it and definitely WAYYY better than the one I tried at Gloria Jeans. The top puff pastry was nice and fluffy topped off with icing sugar which complimented the slice. I reckon it is custard filling that sits in between the top and the bottom waiting to be devoured.

If I had more space in my already filled up tummy from lunch at Tokyo Deli's, I would have had another slice. LOL. The pastries here are lovely but the coffee isn't much to shout about.

Everytime when I am out with Sal, I notice that all we do is eat and shop. Bad combination especially when I am NOT supposed to be doing either! Lol. Despite arranging to go for swim, we've yet to actually step into any pool as she fell ill.

It's nice to have a good chum to hang out with every once in awhile for some girl time. Wonder how are we going to hang out next time once I get a job and am not able to meet her for 'time out' sessions during the weekdays... :(

Cinta Raya at Scoresby

Despite how I always say Mr. C and I are as different as day and night, the sun and the moon, with opposite personalities and what not, I like it how we sometimes have the same craving for the food from a particular eatery.

Today in the afternoon was no different, we both felt like satiating our hunger at Cinta Raya, a Malaysian shop near our area.

You see, we frequent this Malaysian aunt's grocery shop nearby, Shirley's Grocer. She is a really delightful lady with lots of great advise on what to cook and how to cook it. She has been promoting Cinta Raya supportively to help spread by word of mouth about her nephew's shop.

We've been there once and really liked the Mee Goreng (Fried Noodle) and Chow Hor Fan (Fried flat noodles) also known as Wah Tan Hor. The portion is huge that two people can share one dish. Now, you know why Mr. C and I struggle to lose weight. We both greedily order a dish each.

Look at #10. A dish named after me. LOL.

If the food looks as good as it's presented in the menu, then everything is yummy!!

We ordered the Chow Hor Fan as Mr. C wanted a wet dish since I ordered the Mee Siam for a change. Wanted to order Char Koay Teow but since I had that at Glen Waverly few days back, Mr. C reckons I should just try this for a change.

I like the burnt wok taste. To cook this dish well, one needs to really have high fire which is hard to achieve cooking it at home. It was as good as the first time we had it. Nice to know that quality is there.

The Mee Siam was a tad more wet than the usual Mee Siam's I've tried in the past. And I found it odd that nuts were sprinkled on top. Perhaps it is the style of North Malaysia? It was nice and tasty but I would have personally preferred it to be more tangy (tom yam ish) and the mee less wet.

If you dine in, you get complimentary desserts! The last time, we had red bean and I loved it! If you know me, you know I am not a fan of red bean soup. But the one at Cinta Raya, it wasn't too thick and neither was it diluted. I liked the texture whereby consuming the red beans doesn't leave a thick, yucky after taste in one's mouth.

And today's green bean and gandum (wheat) was lovely! Not a fan of green bean either but the gandum offsets the beany taste. I can't wait to see what the next complimentary desert of the day would be, would love to try bubur cha cha.

 

So, if you are ever around Scoresby, craving for Malaysian food or you just feel like trying a new place, check out Cinta Raya!! You definitely won't regret it! :) IF you're thinking of visiting during the weekends, best to call ahead and make reservations as Aunt Shirley mentioned, it gets VERY packed on weekends especially dinner time!

It's just right next to Woolies, in case you can't find the shop. Daniel, the owner wanted to offer a cosy, dark lit ambiance. Hence, from the outside, the shop looks dark ish and might looked like it's closed BUT it usually isn't! So, make sure you walk up to the shop to be sure.

CINTA RAYA ( Asian Cuisine)
Shop 1, Scoresby Village Shopping Cenre,
1381 Ferntree Gully Road,
Scoresby 3179.
[Map.72 H7 next to Woolworths]
Contact : 9763 3378

Overhyped macaroons

Today has been a nice hang out day with NiNi! I really do miss shopping and especially with a lady friend! One that gives me feedbacks on clothes I try and doesn't have the urge to usher me out of the shopping centre as soon as possible.

Knocked ourselves out at Knox Shopping Centre's Temt and Valleygirl and ended up making a few purchases in Temt! Shopping some work clothes for my part time job. LOL. Spending money even before I earned it. Well, someone have said, 'you got to spend to earn'.

We lunched at Grill'd, this awesome burger shop situated in the Knox Ozone. I had the 'Baa Baa' burger upon recommendation from NiNi and it was finger licking good awesome! No points for guessing what meat burger it is. For the obtuse, it's lamb burger. Get it? Baa Baa sheep = lamb meat.

It costs AUD11.90 but if you have the Entertainment book that I blogged about previously over HERE, you can buy a burger and get one free. The burger is all about it's grilled lean lamb pattie with avocado paste, cheese, salad, tomato and some mayo.

We next headed to Brandsmart near her area. It's like DFO (direct factory outlet), a big shop with many shop lots inside it. It was rather quiet ish today. Not many people about, perhaps 'cos it was a weekday. Bought this amazingly soft bamboo bedsheet that cost a fair bit of money and Mr. C didn't even bat an eyelash! Phew. Wait till he sees the stuff I bought from Ebay! =p

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of my day out with NiNi. Come to think of it, I am forever snapping pictures of everything and I didn't take any shots of our day out together! I must have been so engrossed shopping and chatting that the thought of taking pictures just flew out my mind!

However, I remembered to snap a photo of my first ever Macaroon! NiNi was sooo sweet and bought for me two - chocolate and raspberry. She reckons the raspberry is better but somehow Mr. C and I prefer the chocolatey one.

It's rather light and a tad crispy ish on the outside but you feel the gooeyness once your teeth sinks into it.

I must say, I do wonder what is the big hype and crazy over macaroons 'cos I found it really sweet. And this is said with me being a sweet tooth!! Maybe it's just not my cup of tea but I reckon I will try other flavoured macaroons and blog about it in the future. Who knows? It might be an acquired taste kind of food!

Honestly, I've been dying to try it after hearing heaps and heaps of people groaning about how delectable this little creation tastes. I guess media is a highly influential advertisement in our today world because it became a huge hit after starring on Master Chef last season when Marion and some other dude had to do it for their challenge.

Nevertheless, thanks NiNi for my first ever macaroons!

Grocery day at Coles

Last Friday : Part 1

So last Friday, I mentioned that I was going for my first AFL match at Etihad Stadium. It was a really interesting and educational match despite it not being a big match with bigger, more famous teams playing ie Collingwood or Essendon.

Before the match, we - Mr. C, his two colleagues, JC and JS - went to yet another Malaysian eatery at Clayton, Kota Roya. It was the first time for Mr. C and I, so definitely we (more of me) were curious how our meal will turn out.

I love the fact that they serve FREE crackers!

Pretty simple and cosy interior but the funny plastic thing draped over the table clothe was a little tacky and annoying.

JC's hokkien mee

JS and my (each had our own, in case you were wondering) yum Sau Hor Fan... otherwise known as Wah Tan Hor.

Looked simple and small portion but at the end of the meal, I felt rather filled up!

Mr. C's curry laksa... I didn't fancy it as opposed to Old Town's and Laksa King's

The food was only so-so for me. I wouldn't scramble to come back here anytime soon. If I crave Asian food, I'll still head to Glen Waverly instead.

And finally, we reached Etihad Stadium, at the edge of city in Docklands. Because the free tickets we had were corporate ones, we didn't had to go to the 'normal' people entrance, instead, we could go straight through to the 'VIP' entrance, with no queue etc.

Us, trying to contain our excitement. Watching the match on tivo and watching it live in the flesh is EXTREMELY different! Take me to the match anyday, anytime, and I'll go. Where else watching at home is rather yawn-ishly B-O-R-I-N-G!

People were pretty into the match. Western Bulldog fans came adorned with the colours of the team - blue, white and red. You can opt to have dinner before coming or just check out the food kiosk around the stadium that served hot food like pies and drinks.

Flags of the different AFL teams...

Super tall Western Bulldog fan...

Western Bulldog

Melbourne Demons

There were fireworks going off outside, opposite the stadium...

To be continued...