Memories Treasure Chest

PappaRich, Brisbane CBD 'A Union of Indian, Chinese and Native Influences'  by the Mr We have all been there before. You ha ve been slaving away at your homework and studying for hours when you and your st udy group real ize it is time for lu nch. In a group of students, everyone is bound to have a t aste for something dif ferent. So, where do you go to make sure everyone is satisfied? Brisbane first PappaRich restaurant serves Malaysian hawker-style food, but the setting and business model are from a different planet. PappaRich may be seen as a newcomer to Wintergarden in the Brisbane City, where it landed a few months ago, this franchise has Malaysia covered and is rolling through worldwide including China, Singapore and now Australia.  Inside, tables are filled with mix of students, young families and a few reassuring groups of older Asian diners. The restaurant is decked out in black veneer and polished glass with the etches imaging of a smiling P...

Chin Chin, Melbourne CBD These days, conference seem to be the only opportunity for me to travel out of Brisbane. The EMCORE conference this year was held in Melbourne and together with MXM, we attended this full on conference focusing on emergency topics. Phew! Luckily we managed to dose ourselves with caffeine prior to the start of day. Dinner became our priority as we spent almost all day listening to lectures. One of my 'to-go-list' was Chin Chin. I did warned him though that there is usually a long wait.There was no exception that night and we queued and waited for at least 1.5 hours before getting our seats. ( Well, we did walked around and had some crepe before dinner ) Mr Benjamin Cooper, the head chef of Chin Chin had just made an appearance in MasterChef Aus that week. Imagine my excitement when I saw a glimpse of him in the kitchen! Chin Chin's menu is simple and straight forward. For an option of 'Feed Me' and at $69 per person, a selection of ...

Plenty, West End One of the exciting part about my job is that I get to travel and work. Well, it can be exciting at times and sometimes not ( especially when I am really really far away from home and do not possess a vehicle! ). Good friendships are bonded during this work travel and finally Miss Jo and myself had the time to catch up! Since she is relatively new in Brisbane, I brought her to West End market for a browse and then stopped at Plenty for some lunch. Needless to say, it was a busy Saturday and we had to wait for quite a while to get seats. Unlike most cafes or restaurants, their ever-changing and seasonal menu is up on the wall. Trust me, it is not easy deciding on A MEAL, because they all sound so good. Plenty's menu After standing at the counter for at least 5 minutes, I finally decided on the duck egg, cotechino sausage with fried chickpea salad; with my usual flat white. As for Miss Jo, she went for the sweet option and had the twice cooked french...

Rogue Bar and Bistro, Newstead Writing blogs jog my memory not only about the food I had, but also to bring me back to the  moments I had with my company. Rogue Bar and Bistro is one of my favourite restaurant although I had visited this place once only. Finally, the Mr and myself both had the time together for dinner at Rogue. Street parking is ample and it was so convenient.  The menu in Rogue Bar is quite simple, mainly with the name of the protein for each meal. For example: pig, fish, poultry and many more... Reading through the menu, we decided on two entrees, two main meals and three side dishes. We do tend to order our 'frequent flyers' and there was no exception that night. For entrees, we had the calamari and the duck dumplings.  Calamari The lightly battered calamari was cooked to perfection, really tender and soft. The squid ink aioli with the pickled onion were a nice addition to the dish. Delicious! Duck dumplings Well, what about the duc...

Emilia's Pasticceria E Deli Italiano, Gympie This must have been the most visited cafe I visited whilst I was in Gympie! Maybe four times? I have recently completed my work here in Gympie, working as a night owl and changing my circardian rhythm. Some days, after a busy shift, I will treat myself to good delicious treats and coffee from Emilia's, which is THE place to go! Emilia's is an Italian influenced cafe that serves breakfast, lunch and plenty of sweet desserts. The menu is up on their chalkboard on the wall. They do sell some imported rare Italian produced in the cafe that I have yet to try. Well, I have sampled at least one of their breakfast, lunch and dessert choices and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. My housemate, Anne first visited this place and claimed how good their panini was! I had to try it and I had the ' chicken, fontina, dukkah, eggplant and sweet potato ' panini. The serving was huge, filling and delicious. At $14.50, it was worth ...

Pizza Capers Pizza Capers had recently introduced a new pizza base: ' Rustico Thin Base '! Lucky me that Pizza Capers is just a walking distance from my home and the Mr and myself had a lovely walk to pick up the pizza with the new base! I am usually a fan of thick or normal base pizza, so that I would be quite full after a few pieces and not indulged on a whole pizza if it was a thin based pizza... So when I had the opportunity to indulge on the new rustico thin base, I said 'Yes!'. Decision making was tough as there are so many options to choose from! The Mr has his own likes and dislikes and with mine combined, we finally opted for 'The pulled Porknado'; which includes pulled pork, crispy bacons, pepperoni on a BBQ sauce base.  Hmm... Our concensus of the pizza itself was okay. While the toppings were satisfactory, the pizza base may be quite dry to our liking. The level of 'thin-ness' has made it quite crispy especially on the edges, and ...

Mighty Mighty, Fortitude Valley Meeting up with Simco has been quite a challenge despite him returning to Brisbane to work since January this year. My current work, in which I had to travel away pretty frequently certainly made things more difficult. Well, after much cross-matching our schedule, we finally made it to dinner at Mighty Mighty, a restaurant that focuses on American BBQ and smokehouse cuisine. Trying to indulge on a variety of food, we started off with the ‘Jalapeno corn bread’. It was pretty good, not overly dry or spicy, and better with its soft, creamy butter.  Jalapeno cornbread Mighty Mighty has a wine and beer list that is very intriguing. Not a beer fan and with reduced alcohol tolerance, I opted for the ginger beer, which in fact was alcoholic. It was gingery and sweet…. As for Simco, he had the Mocha Porter, which has a stronger taste in flavour and he seemed to enjoy it. Well, now for our mains! The ‘Devil Dripped Pork Ribs’ caugh...

Chester Street Bakery and Bar, Fortitude Valley Going out to a restaurant and café especially on a public holiday is a risky one. I guess it all depends on which café we choose though. On the Anzac public holiday, MXM and myself decided to go to Chester Street Bakery for brunch. We had to wait long, really long for seats and for our food to arrive. I was so tempted to order one of its colourful cake on display just to satisfy my hungry stomach. As it was quite a warm day, I ordered one of its pressed juices while MXM had his usual long black; both reasonably good. Long Black Pineapple, orange, carrot and passionfruit juice - $8.50 As for our meals, I had the 'falafel with poached eggs, spinach and tahini yoghurt'. I was not impressed at all looking at my meal. Falafel with 'poached eggs', spinach and tahini yoghurt -$18.90 At a glance, I knew my poached eggs have been overcooked, and it is like eating hard boiled eggs. Without the oozing egg yo...

Jamie's Italian, Brisbane CBD Well, the day has finally arrived that I stepped into Jamie's Italian and have lunch there! Yay! I have always been a fan of Jamie Oliver's and I was indeed ecstatic when we were heading there for lunch. Miss Lainey and myself had time off that day and decided to spend some girls time in the city. I have read reviews that it is difficult to get seats for walk-ins. The experienced Lainey (who had visited Jamie's few times) suggested that we wait at the bar while waiting for our seats. While waiting for our table (15 minutes or so), we ordered some nibbles from the bar.   Part of Jamie's Italian Bar So, we ordered polenta chips while waiting for our seats in the restaurant. It came pretty promptly and I have to admit, that was my first time trying polenta chips! I quite enjoyed the freshly grated parmesan cheese on the crispy, not overly dry polenta chips. I just found it to be a little salty, but otherwise enjoyable. Pol...