Memories Treasure Chest

Jacaranda Coffee Lane, West End Last term, we enrolled Grace at Queensland Ballet and enrolled her in the Early Years Dance class, which she seems to enjoy. As we will be quite busy these coming months with a new addition, we decided to stop and hopefully restart again next term. As part of a celebration that she completed a term, we decided to have breakfast at Jacaranda Coffee Lane, after a visit at the West End Library! (Yes, trying to find excuse to eat out... ) We were thankful to have seats readily available that morning, and the service was prompt and friendly. I noted that there are some colouring pens/crayons available and Grace was happy to do some colouring (well, attempted to). The menu here is so interesting with some Asian influence and I could not wait to dig in! They also have kids meal available and ordered the ' Scrambled Eggs on cheesy toast ' ($6.50) for Grace. Among other cafes, I think Jacaranda has the best value for kids meal.  Her scrambl...

Morning After, West End Looking through my old photos, I realised that I have not blogged for a very long time. Hopefully my current momentum will keep me blogging! On the days when hubby is at work, I will try to explore so me new cafes and treat myself to some bre kkie! Morning After has been on my radar, and finally o n an early Saturday morning, I visited Morning After . It was not busy , however, all the 2-seater table s have been occupi ed and the only choice I had was the shared bench. There were so many interesting options on the men u from the sweet corn pakora, carbonara and Boston baked beans.... Wel l, I was very t empted to order any of that, however, I was just craving some Eggs Benedict that day. The hollandaise sauce was good, served on top o f two perfect poached eggs with thick toasts. Yum! My c hai latte aka 'chai boy' was all right , thought it could be more warm. Eggs Benedict Chai Latte Anyhow, hoping that I will be able to return to ...

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...

Tazza Coffee, West End What used to be Cup coffee has now changed to Tazza coffee in West End. Quite a while ago, on a hot summer day, MXM and myself visited Tazza for some brekkie. Known for its good coffee, MXM had the iced long black while I myself could not resist their own specialty chai tea.  Ice Long Black Iced Chai Tea The iced chai tea was all right. I would still prefer the usual warmed chai tea as the ice had diluted the 'creaminess' and flavour of the tea.   The breakfast meals in Tazza are quite simple and I opted for the 'avocado mash with feta cheese and mushroom' while MXM had the 'roasted pumpkin with poached eggs'.  Overall, the meals here are fresh and simple and they were delightful. MXM has always been quite fond of their coffee. :)

First Pour, West End Well, well, well.... Turning a year older is never easy and I felt like I have not achieve enough over the last year. Anyhow, certainly much has happened since my last birthday including graduating and getting a job. So that is an achievement for me. :) I was lucky that a colleague swapped his rosters with mine so that I can have a few days off on my birthday. Yay! First up, I want some good caffeine dose and I found it in First Pour. Being a weekday, it was surprisingly difficult to find parking, probably due to the working hours.   It was not busy at all during the morning. I wanted to try something different instead of my usual flat white, and I dare myself to try the 'Chemex' filtered coffee. Lol, remember our science project in school? I feel Chemex filtration coffee is something similar with using the filtered paper while waiting for the purified water to drip down. That coffee was good. Surprisingly it was smooth, light and quit...

Era Bistro, South Brisbane Lots of planning has come to mind for the Mr's birthday celebration. I have bought tickets to Le Noir months ahead and all I needed was a pre-show dinner. Fortunately, Era Bistro does have pre-show dinners available and food can be served relatively early so that diners can make it to QPAC! Well, we were fortunate that we managed to leave on time even though we did not order from the pre-show dinner's menu. :)  Pizza of the day - $17.50 To start with, we had their pizza of the day which consisted of chorizo on a tomato based pizza. All I can remember was that the pizza had a good base and their chorizo was one of the best I tried before. Yummy! Shortly after, our mains arrived. The Mr had the angus sirloin and I myself, not surprisingly, had the duck breast.    Maple Glazed duck breast, pumpkin, braised cabbage, chestnuts and vanilla jus - $38 Angus reserve sirloin, fondant potato, creamed spinach, horseradis...

China Inn Restaurant, South Brisbane How often would someone genuinely forgotten their boyfriend's birthday and celebrate his birthday one day earlier? It is very embarrassing for me to admit it, but I did it. Oops! My memories seemed to bring me back to the date we spent his previous birthdays instead of his actual birth-date. Thankfully, the Mr was very forgiving that night.  After our magical night watching Le Noir, we sped walked to China Inn for supper. The Mr had been updated regarding this new restaurant that specializes in dumplings! It must be our lucky night as we walked into the restaurant at 10 pm and they are still happy to serve us.  Quickly browsing through the menu, I told the birthday man that I want to try their xiao long bao and their Peking Duck!  Peking Duck (4 pcs) - $12.80 So, here they are their Peking duck! It was not served in a soft bao but readily wrapped up in the pancake. The Peking duck was sliced thickly (which was awesom...

Trang, West End Surprisingly, Vietnamese restaurant is not popular at all back in Malaysia. They don't mushroom like the vietnamese restaurants here in Brisbane, which is unfortunate for those craving for some Vietnamese spring rolls, pho or even grilled pork! Therefore, I took grandma, mom and cousin to Trang to try some Vietnamese food while they were here a couple of weeks ago.  First up, we had their pork and prawn spring rolls. Fresh and delicious!  I ordered the wanton with BBQ pork noodles for grandma. The broth was light and full of flavour. Hmmm.. not sure what kind of noodles they used (not egg noodle, vermicelli or even rice noodle) but it sure tasted good.  Their crispy chicken with rice was also quite good. But my all time favourite ' grilled pork with vermicelli ' was the clear winner of the night. The pork was really tender and  the freshness of the bean sprouts, cucumber, lettuce and carrots blended well with ...

Cup Coffee, West End Dear readers, I am back! I had to take a break from blogging for a while due to my busy rotation and I was less motivated to blog over the past few weeks due to stress... However, hopefully I will be able to write more food reviews when I procrastinate from my studies (like now!). :) So, back to the real topic here which is food, of course! Klin and myself visited Cup at West End when I returned from Mackay. This is many months ago now! We were able to catch up over coffee and some meals at Cup. There are plenty of street parkings available especially on a weekday.  The meals available at Cup are rather simple, cheap and small in portions. Klin had one of the specials of the day while I had their chorizo beans. Basil pesto, fresh roma tomatoes, feta and rocket on toasted pane with poached egg - $12.50 Her dish was simple and fresh and the egg was poached to perfection. Not bad! Chorizo beans with cheese toast -$14 ...