Dainty Szechuan Food

What does the name of the restaurant make you think of? I imagined this place to be small, cramped, smelly yet serve good Szechuan fare. Turns out Dainty serves good and real spicy Szechuan dishes in a clean spacious environment. We, however, did not escape the smell of deep frying and hot pot brewing all around us but who cares?

Diana warned me it will be spicy and I thought I’d manage. I told her I won’t eat the dried chillies and avoid gravy but I tell you my tongue was still burnt with spice.

Take for example the harmless looking dish of fried chicken, don’t underestimate this at all. The seasoning is virtually invisible yet the bite sized chicken wings are addictive. Bring on the icy cold water!

Besides the food, we had a good time catching up. Some of us have not met since 7 years ago or more. How time flies~ So glad to see them again and happy to know everyone is getting on really well.

My favourite dish here at Dainty? Sweet Chilli Sauce Eggplant takes the prize away hands down.

Crunchy-sticky on the outside, soft inside.

Location: 26 Corrs Lane, Melbourne

Warm love,
Starningblue

糖潮 Dessert House

This little Hong Kong café brings back memories of my university days. Tina, Linda and I conduct “Joy Luck Club” lunches (or dinners) here and catch up with gossips. I know that my visit commanded loads of envy from both of them!

Their signature dish is the Lemongrass Pork Chop Rice. It looks plain but it tastes nothing like it seems! The marinating is done very well, the piece of meat is so fragrant with lemongrass infused oil to eat it just with rice and some soya sauce drizzled on it is good enough. As with all rice dishes; a sunny side up oozing yolk perfects the whole meal.

Other yummy offerings they have is the authentic HK 车仔面 where you put together your very own noodles with toppings and gravy or soup. While there, be sure to try out their pancake dessert with fruit and ice cream too.

Penny, you HAVE to visit this place!

Location: 18/200 Bourke St, Mid City Arcade Melbourne

Warm love,
Starningblue

Thai and bubbles

It was a friend's 21st and we all went to a thai restaurant on lygon st. As usual I forgot to take a picture of the entrance but I hope the foodie pics will suffice ;)


Thaila Thai
82 Lygon St Brunswick East
3057 Vic

Green curry. Could have been richer in flavour

Fried Kuay Tiao hahaha. I forgot the name but it taste somewhat like that

Mutton curry. Most awesome dish of the night. Somewhere along there I forgot I was having Thai cuisine not malay..

Pad Thai. Finally a decent one!

Lastly, my favorite taro green milk tea with pearls from TenRen (which I can create another post just for bubble tea YUMS)

Honestly speaking I havent tried any other Thai food other than YingThai simply because 1. Its within walking distance 2. They have tomyum soup to-die-for 3. Their green/red curry is gastronomic. At first I was rather skeptical of Thaila thai but hey! I love their pad thai and mutton curry to the max! You can give a miss for their tomyum though(YT still reign). But if both restaurants could merge their best dishes together, I'd be there 5 times a week. And happily suffer from bad throat after that ;)

Jamie’s Italian

@ one of Jamie Oliver’s chain of high street restaurants… with its no booking policy, you are likely to end up in a queue at peak hours. Was it really that good? I’ll say - delectable dinner in a casual atmosphere…to think that I wasn’t a big fan of his once upon a time.

Love this plate of crispy squid served with garlic aoli.

this is the 8oz Sirloin (dry aged for 21 days) chargrilled & served pink with grilled flat mushrooms. It was done perfectly the way I like.   Lamb chop lollipops – grilled welsh mountain lamb chops cooked ‘al matone’ under brick with special minted sauce, chopped roasted nuts and soft herbs. Mmmmmmm…

Tuscan chocolate and hazelnut cake served with seasonal fruits…was rather disappointed with the fruit but the cake was nice.

Jamie’s special Tiramisu… not too soggy and with a balance of flavors, its yummy though its presentation doesn’t look appetizing and the portion is kinda large.

‘Juan

Rick Stein’s Cafe

Because me friend is on budget, we had to give his restaurant a missed. I would so love to try his seafood which is what he is famous for. Anyhow, we make do with his cafe for a short informal tea break.

Traditional cream tea of scones, clotted cream and jam… you can’t miss this when you are in Cornwall!

The one miserable hot cross bun that I insisted on having cos it was Easter then…

Addy: Middle Street, Padstow, Cornwall

'Juan

Lazy Days Guest House

 

This probably looks like just another English breakfast but bcos I enjoyed my stay here so much, I wanted to share it with you. Big Thanks to Sue & Tom who made us felt so at home. Oh you gotta try their homemade hash brown…its yummy.

Every room has a different theme and I got to say I like the couples’ taste. This room is the Tres Chic room with French Chateau style bed and I tot of her (Ni) when I entered.

Find them @ 36 St Annes Road, Newquay, TR7 2SA

Tel - 01637 876074

' Juan

Santouka Ramen, drizzled with love

As embarrassing as it sounds, we did a takeaway of the left-over pork cheek from Santouka Ramen last night. Armed with a 1-for-1 coupon from the 8 Days magazine, we went for the award winning Tokusen Toroniku ramen and mine was in Shio broth, Kel’s in Miso.

We love how the soup is the least salty of comparable ramen joints and the signature pork cheek slices are so soft and tender it melts in the mouth.

Really, Santouka Ramen is a must-try but go before the main crowd arrives at usual meal times to avoid a queue as both the Central Mall and Cuppage Terrace branches are relatively small.

The queue at Central Mall after we finished our meal

Ramen dry

Today, I woke up to the aroma of scrambled eggs. Watching him cook for me early morning before we head off to work sweetens up the whole day. The pork cheek sandwich with fresh leaves and scrambled eggs was divine. Maybe it was the pork? Maybe it was the gesture of love? I enjoyed every last bit of breakfast.

Oh, back to what I was talking about. Santouka Ramen serves up great dry ramen with a flavourful dip as well. Slurp!

Warm love,
Starningblue

The Dux De Lux Brew Bar

Dux De Lux simply means Masters of the Finest. We visited the bar instead of the restaurant.

We wanted mussels. We walked the town, looked at many menus and couldn’t brave the cold and hunger anyone… so we decided not to be fussy and settled for this.

It was surprisingly quiet at about 7-ish in the evening & we almost had the whole place to ourselves.  But I gux we were too early to be in a brew bar? Nwae, their Dux Lager (awarded as best NZ lager 2006) was good, so nothing else matters.

Seafood platter – Goujons of fish, filo wrapped prawns, marlborough green lipped mussels, scallops, salt & pepper squid

Crumbed Fish & Chip

Addy: 14-16 Church St, Queenstown, NZ