Banana Sticky Date Pudding, The Grange

This is undoubtedly the best sticky date pudding although I understand that it's a very subjective claim. This pud was so delectable that I had to have it a second time before leaving Hamilton, which meant I struggled hard to choose between it and my keeness to try their special of the day, the chocolate pudding.

The beauty I reckon lies in the banana used. Most sticky dates are just date and toffee. The banana gives the pudding a good moist replacing the need for too much butter, adding a nice hint of aroma to it. Not only is the traditional double cream provided, there was homemade vanilla bean ice cream to accompany and plenty of butterscotch.

Replete Providore

Asian Corn Fritters with Honey Soy Bacon topped with Pineapple, Salsa and Sweet Chilli
- A breakfast fusion indeed. A Western creation using a mix of Oriental ingredients along with fruits to meat, it's very flavourful.

Replete apparently has 2005's breakfast dish of the year and Victoria's best brownie. The menu changes daily and all their pastry are freshly made

More Weekend Load Up

Saturday 23rd...

Asked to cover last minute till late on a friday night is a reason to give yourself a special weekend treat especially when dear Eva came all the way from Hamilton and has graciously requested company.

Here's the start to an big indulgence.

Lunch at Wagamama's. They actually have an interesting dessert selection including a chocolate mousse with wasabi centre. Must try next time and with the loyalty card, it's a great come back value.

Desserts was at Hans Brinker, QV, a new dutch place.

Chocolate Dream Pannekoek

- thinner than pancake, thicker than crepe, this dutch pannekoek was made with chocolate chip, dressed with fudge, topped with chocolate ice cream and served beautifully warm on a pan

Peach Melba Crepe

Berry Dream Poffertjes

Fueled with all the sugar, I went for my first ever go karting experience at Ace Karts, Sunshine. It does take alot out of you if you're spoilt with power steering. There were 11 guys and 3 girls in total for the race and not expecting much of myself, I came in 10th, which is not bad being probably the only newby and ranking highest among the females, beating 2 other males. The sugar probably helped or maybe what's left of my Malaysian driving skills.

The boys pigged out after the big race at a Vietnamese restaurant but here's where I refuelled - dessert at Gluttony's.

Gluttony offers a unique range of their in house composition, most of which are exeptional although trial of the chocolate, beetroot and tofu cake, gorgeous as it may look, may have been too daring.

Baked Blueberry and Boysenberry Cheesecake

Sunday 24th...

Breakfast at the Vineyard, St Kilda.
Mascarpone addiction continues...

The Great Tassie Brekky
- Scrambled Eggs with Salmon on thick sourdough drizzled with pesto served with full mascarpone

Dinner at Sofia's

An impressive mount with a height greater than my face.

Sofia's is well known for their huge servings and after having gone through the spagetti marinara, tagliatelle pesto and fritto misto shared between my brother, Jolene and myself, I downed 3/4 of the gelato.

The reason for my ongoing unsuccessful desire to lose weight. I will be working throughout next weekend.

- coffee, rum & raisins, hazelnut, bacio, chocolate, pistachio, choc chip peppermint and banana

Weekend Indulgence

I mentioned how having a weekday day off is an acceptable consolation to having to work on a weekend but when I don't have to work, I guess it's an opportunity to indulge. I know I'm not meant to but hey, God blessed me with good friends to share meaningful moments with.

Weekend of the 17th...

Lunch at Blue Train, Southbank.
Fish & Chips
Now, the dessert...

An all time favourite - Warmed Chocolate Flourless cake. One of the few places that serves a flourless cake naturally warmed and topped with the rich ganache, it's wicked

Pecan Tart - substantial in thickness, fully loaded with nuts throughout

Sticky Date - Mosit, sweet but not as good as the Lounge

After I finished lunch and dessert, my brother and his wife happened to arrived at the same place and I greedily waited for them to order and had a pinch of the ice mocha, black forest and raspberry choc chip muffin. The muffin is worth trying.

Sunday 18th...

Breakfast at Babka, Brunswick St

Georgian Beans with Fetta - House special

Tea at a creperie...

Poached Pear in Star Anise and Butterscotch Crepe with Mascarpone Cream and Ice cream
- Generously filled, delicious. A good solid flavoured mascarpone would've done it over this runny one

Later in the evening...
Baptism at Planet Shakers
Celebration of Rochelle's (Urban Life member) baptism followed at Nocturno's, Lygon St
Cake...

My dinner - Bailey's Chocolate Cheesecake.
I asked for chocolate ice cream

Nocturno's, where friends meet, has a wide selection of cakes. Although manufactured, it's still very nice and it'll always have a special place in me being the first place I had my first cake in Australia. That wicked first bite sparked the sweet passion.

Mascarpone

I never understood what the fuss was about with a tiramisu, especially a homemade one but now I know. It's the mascarpone. The key ingredient and the reason why it's usually more expensive than most desserts on the same menu.

My fancy for mascarpone started just early this year when I had breakfast at the Grocery Bar, East Melbourne. I love my eggs and a hot brekky so although I am always very tempted to try the very interesting sweet selection for breakfast, I hardly do. The Groccery Bar doesn't have a very interesting hot breakfast selection but no one really needs to if they do the simple things well but I didn't think highly enough of that place to have to get eggs that morning. Since I live just above it and can go back for their eggs if they were good, I decided to try their poached pear with mascarpone on homemade fruit toast. It was gorgeous. Mascarpone made the dish in terms of flavour and texture, a topping for all the fruits over boring yogurt. Sadly, I did not think highly of it beforehand to have capture a picture of it.

Good things does not come to an end as I had another welcomed opportunity at breakfast with Yii Vern at Madam Sou Sou, Brunswick St. We ordered our desired hot brekky but thoughts alike, we ordered a sweet option to follow, to share of course. Such a blessing to have dear friends with so much similarities.

Creamy Scrambled with Double-Smoked Bacon












Poached Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms

French toast with cinnamon mascarpone and poached pear drizziled with honey

The toast was very carefully crumbed with cinnamon giving it a light unique texture. I love how the mascarpone was of solid texture that slowly melted onto the toast allowing you to savour the full bodiedness of this creamy cheese. I think having dinner here and sampling the dessert menu would be a next to-do. I can't leave out the all time favourite Tiramisu when sharing my new love for mascapone can I? Especially since it's also one of Jade's (my darling sister) favourite dessert. When we were in Rome, we were practically in search for the best tiramisu. Well, that's because good gelato was just everywhere in your face.

Jade's 23rd in Rome

Good Tiramisu is hard to come by and it's so unlike me to order it if it's not highly recommended but at Don Vincenzo, Brunswick St, I did, because it looked good and it really tasted good thankfully. It was originally in a huge bowl before they served us this pile. It certainly had a rustic homemade look to it. Apparently, except for the chocolate mud cake, their chefs make all the cakes in house. And it's got some unique creations too.

Dark Chocolate and Kahlua Cheesecake

Breakfast at Ludo

Breakfast is indeed my favourite meal though it may sound simple, it's just eggs. I am easy to please at the end of the day :)

Having breakfast in the heart of the CBD on a weekday when everyone is rushing to if not already at work can be so comforting. In my job when you have to work very hard and long hours, you do get time off when other's don't. Nothing beats having a relaxing weekend brunch in the sunshine but having breakfast on a weekday with no rush comes close and sometimes, it's a lot more affordable.

Ludo on Queen's St serves lovely traditional breakfast despite the small menu. There side choices are limited and eggs only come in one way, but it's a very good way. The scramble is not just smooth and creamy, it's in good layers and those generous size mushrooms as you can see that stretches across the plate fragrantly sauteed with herbs leaves you satisfied. It's the best. The bacon has enough colour, well cooked. It was not complete in that I had no coffee but there's always next time. I have to bring Yii Vern, a food buddie equally devoted to brekky.

Overworked Treat

I had to work 39 official hours over a period of 2 days. That was tough man. I guess we all assume that's that's life for doctors. I covered Orthopaedics which is one of the busiest jobs and after starting at 630am to 6pm, I was called to work in ICU that night till the next morning. I was given the rest of the day off after 930am but reluctant to change my bio-clock after work given that I will be working during the day the next day, I had only a couple of hours sleep and went out with a dear colleague friend who took the afternoon off for a sugar fix.

This is a macadamia dark chocolate extravangza from San Churo on Brunswick St. I wonder if they called it that because it's really loaded. They whole pudding is drenched in dark chocolate with some white chocolate highlights. It's beautiful but it can be too rich. I did not even go through half of the extra chocolate sauce because the pudding was loaded but then again, I wonder if I was feeling a little guilty by the extreme treat I'm allowing myself. There's a whole heap of other goodies that's really tempting in this chocolateria and I am so going back. Their stuff are made with 60% coverture cocoa. Wow. Now I just need to get a buddy to come along. I really want to try their exotic sounding drinks and even their ice cream are made with such quality chocolate for the coming summer.

Serendipity

The Lounge is a nice place for a casual meet up. It's cosy, conveniently located in the heart of Melbourne and serves a wonderful changing variety of value-for-money meals, desserts and drinks. Last Thursday, I had dinner there with Yii Vern, a dear girlfriend and this picture probably does not do justice in expressing the scrumptious $10 prawn linguini with good cup of coffee we had, but it's beautiful.

Prawn Linguini with roma tomotoes, roquette, pine nuts and oregano oil

The dessert was a generous size chocolate cake with milk chocolate accompaniment instead of a syrup but it's nothing to harp about although the tempting stew rhubarb with vanilla custard and almond biscotti will lead me back to try.

Belgium Chocolate Tart

The food was good and our regular life sharing was fantastic but that night, there was something else. Further into that night when we've finished our meals and there was but only our empty water glass left on the table, a fairly charming blonde guy probably in his late 20s to 30s came over to our table and knelt down. Yii Vern thought he was gonna ask for money whereas I thought he wanted our table seat. Instead, he spoke slowly, saying that I was the most stunning girl he's seen and that he had to come over to let me know. His facial gesture remained serious as I chuckled to Vern. He offered to buy me whatever drink I would like and the usual greedy me was so tempted to pick something from the wide range of cocktail the Lounge had to offer and there was also a 2 for 1 offer so Vern could have a drink as well. Surprisingly, I declined. He offered to get me some water to which I agreed to so he walked away and then returned with a jug of water. He filled my glass and uttered some romantic european sounding phrase and politely walked away. Such a touching moment.

The next day I saw a feature on Today Tonight regarding "First Impressions" and how the 100s of people we briefly pass by each day instantly form an impression of you. It's also said that in general, women think that people including close friends or families see only their flaws overriding the beauty. Men in general think people see the good sides of them. Self esteem and image has always been a problem for women. I do struggle with this at times. I know that I'm created beautiful, in His image but I still have the occasional doubt. That night, He decided to physically reassure me. I thought that that man came over as a dare but when we left, we saw that he was not with a big group of friends but was just having a drink with another mate. Decent looking. He did not ask for my number which is a good thing. It's not my idea of meeting a guy like this, a stranger where our expression will be so fake but that incident was beautiful. Just a moment. No strings or motive attached.

My Chocolate Ecstasy

Riva - Chocoholic Tasting Plate: White Chocolate Creme Brulee, Chocolate Mud Cake; Chocolate Creme Custard on Jelly; Chocolate Mousse with Fairy Floss and Chocolate Ice cream

Chocolate Explosion

This dessert is comprised of layers of chocolate muffin with loads of choc fudge and ice cream within. It's served warmed up so the gooey fudge that engulf the soften muffin erupts and the ice cream cools things down. It's a really interesting concept and it's so good. The texture and flavours play so well together . Sinful.

Koko Black has such high quality chocolate. The Martini Chocolate Mousse is very creamy and can be a tad rich - a great oppotunity to share.

The ice chocolate is beautiful. It's made with both vanilla and belgium chocolate ice cream although there's a newer version now that I've yet to try. This combo is the perfect small treat. The mocha is deliciously dressed with chocolate shavings instead of the usual commercial cocoa dusting. The brownie is not on the menu but it's available at a price of $2.50 and comes with their house special mousse.

Chocolate Croissant Pudding - Sorrento

A sweet variation of the traditional bread and butter pudding, loaded with chocolate. It still retains alot of the similarities of the smooth buttery centre.