Duchess of Spotswood

Duchess of Spotswood was chosen for this weekend breakky venture. We had never being to Spotswood but there wasn't a slight hesitation to wake up early, follow by a 45mins drive across the city to get there.

There were already quite a handful of reviews available on Urbanspoon. My personal favourite food blogger, Sarah was one of them who wrote it beginning of the year. I know I can trust her :-)

As the opening hours was not listed on Urbanspoon, I resorted to twitter to check what's is was for the weekend. Whoever was maintaining the twitter account impressed me. It was answered within 20mins.

In order to avoid the peak human traffic, we reached Duchess of Spotswood at 9am on a sunny Saturday morning. There wasn't a queue yet which was a good sign to us meaning we don't have to wait. But there's wasn't many seats available inside the cafe. In the end, we shared the communal table which a group of grannies and grandpas.



We were offered menu, water and coffee once we settled down. Decision time while waiting for the coffee.





Both our coffee was served lukewarm. I would loved it to be served hotter. It wasn't strong nor very fragrant but it had a a very nice after taste which was lingering in the mouth after every slip.

I chosen Breakfast of Champignons which consisted of Potato and Barley Hash with Field Mushrooms, English Stilton and Poached Eggs



Deconstructed Breakfast of Champignons

The poached egg were perfectly done. Mushroom were juicy. I, myself isn't a fan of English Stilton which was melted on top of 1 of the mushroom. It didn't bother me too much, I just scrapped it off and placed it aside. As for the hash, it was fried till very crispy on the outside. One can taste the barley but not a much as it looks like there's wasn't much barley used in it. Something starchy was used to bind both ingredients together. Felt a bit too much was used and can't taste the texture of the barley and potato. Towards the end was just sticky.


Mr. went for Duchess of Pork which was Crispy Pig's Jowl with Fried Egg, Rich Truffle Sauce and Sourdough Toast. This dish was our favourite. Egg yolks were still runny and Truffle sauce wasn't too overpowering. Pork was amazing, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. With just a fork, you are able to pull it into pieces and it melts in the mouth. It wasn't dry, fatty or oily.

For that piece of pork, we will definitely be back.

Kueh Dadar - Coconut stuffed Pandan Pancake Rolls

I was craving for Kueh especially after reading Fatbooo's blogpost on making Ang Ku Kueh. AKK was 1 of the many food item which I definitely have when I'm in Singapore.

Due to limited ingredients in my pantry and time, it wasn't possible to make AKK last weekend. Took out all my Singapore/Malaysia cookbook and ended up with 2 choices. Oneh-oneh or Kueh Dadar. I left the decision making to Mr.

I did tweak the recipe because

1. I didn't have any fresh granted coconut but I had desiccated coconut which I need to finish and decided to improvise.
2. I didn't use Pandan Juice as I was lazy and felt it was a waste using 40 leaves for just 5 tablespoons of pandan juice. Plus fresh Pandan is not easily available nor cheap in Australia. Pandan essence was a good alternative.
3. I only had half the amount of desiccated coconut required for the full recipe. Therefore I halved the recipe. Recipe said 20 Kueh Dadar which will be too much for us to finish.
4. I also didn't have enough coconut milk so substituted with coconut flavour evaporative milk. Healthy option too :-)
5. Although I halved every ingredient, I totally forgotten to halve the amount of flour. I only realised when I was mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients for the pancake mixture.
6. In the end I had to add more evaporative milk to thin the mixture. I just went with my feeling and stop adding milk till the mixture was watery enough to make a thin slice of pancake.

To make Filling:

Ingredients (clockwise): Sugar and Salt, Coconut, Water, Pandan Leaves, Palm Sugar




Combined everything together and cooked till coconut absorbed all the liquid. Mine turned out to be dried. I blamed it on the desiccated coconut used.

To make Pancake:

Ingredients (clockwise): Sugar & Salt & Baking Powder, Egg, Pandan Essence, Coconut Milk,  Flour

Combine all ingredients by whisking till batter smooth. 

Spoon 3 tablespoon of batter into a pan and spread the batter into a think pancake. Transfer to a plate once cooked and repeat with the remaining batter.

This was taken on my 3rd pancake? It definitely wasn't pretty! I was having a bit of difficulties trying to make it as thin and even as possible. Practise makes perfect. Towards the end, I was getting the hang of it.

To assemble, lay the pancake, place 3 tablespoons of filling and roll, tucking in the sides (just like making springroll).



Took me about an hour from start to finish. Although it was dried due to the filling, it was flavoursome. It wasn't too sweet and fragrant with coconut and pandan.

I will try to make it again but must 1st get hold of fresh granted coconut and make sure I follow the recipe more closely.

Chez Dre

It was planned to spend our weekend morning at Port Melbourne to run some errands. 1st thing in the morning, I popped into our local news agent to grab a copy of The Age Good Cafe Guide 2011 at $5 which was on special for the day only.

It was announced days ago that Chez Dre was awarded Best Bakery Cafe by The Age Good Cafe Guide 2011. Chez Dre also scored the highest - three cups according to the guide. As we had some time to spare before our appointment, Mr suggested to get a coffee from Chez Dre.

We were kinda of expecting a crowd as huge as St. Ali as it was already after 10am. But coffee ended up became full breakky as there wasn't a queue. We were seated in less than 5mins. While waiting for the waitress to organise the table, I went round taking some photos especially on their dessert display fridge.




5 different flavours of macarons were available before we left which we didn't get any. Tried Chez Dre's macarons before and wasn't impressed therefore decided to skip it.


4 flavours of Eclair available : Vanilla, Chocolate, Coffee and Salted Caramel.

We had a vanilla eclair and salted caramel take away. Can I suggest to improve the packaging for take away?? The eclairs were placed on a very soft cardboard acting as the base and covered with a clear plastic bag. Surely they can afford to pack them in a more solid box? At least easier for customer to handle them while walking thru the crowded market.

At a price of $7.50 for a eclair, I do find it expensive. Well, if it's good, it's worth it. But to our disappointment, we didn't enjoy neither flavour. Salted Carmel was just buttery, can't taste the saltiness. Vanilla was slightly better but still no wow factor.




Andrea Reiss (Dre) in action that morning.


Mr. normal cappuccino looking very pretty!


My usual soy cappuccino.

The coffee was only above average. It wasn't too milky but it wasn't fragrant nor strong. We definitely enjoyed St. Ali coffee more.


I had the Stuffed Mushroom with Walnut and Spinach, Housemade beans and Herbed Crouton. I liked the crouton which was very crunchy and stuffed mushroom but sadly not the beans. There wasn't much flavour in the beans and I preferred my beans to more soggy, saucy and soft. But that's just me.


Mr. had Smoked Ham & Gruyere Cheese Grilled Sandwich Topped with Bechamel Sauce and a Fried Egg on Top. The combination of grilled cheese with the bread used was a match. Bread was crunchy and fragrant but the slice of ham was just too pathetic. Potato on the side was soft and full of herbs although not much can be seen.

Overall, breakky was good but wasn't fantastic. Price was quite reasonable.
Will we return? Doubt so as we still enjoy St. Ali when compared.

Cafe Vue at Heide

How often does Melbourian wakes up on a weekend with a clear blue sunny sky in the mid of winter? We were lucky enough to have such weather on Saturday and decided to make full use of it by starting the day with breakky at Cafe Vue at Heide.

Heard so much about Cafe Vue but had never stepped into 1. Cafe Vue at Heide was chosen out of the 4 in Melbourne solely because of location. It was nearest to us and situated in a park. We could sit out and enjoy the sun after breakky.



At 1130 Cafe Vue was pretty packed, almost full in the dining area. We were seated at the alfresco area. 1st impression wasn't great to start with. After finally making our order, I went into the dining area to take a look. There was a fridge displaying the desserts - 10 different types of slices and tarts, also macarons.








While photo-taking, overheard a gentleman making a complain to the waitress at the counter. He spend 45mins waiting with nothing being served to his table. I can see he was pissed, who wouldn't?

Started to doubt whether was it a good choice picking this cafe. Any chance leaving the cafe with a empty tummy? Hmmmmm



We started taking note of the waiting time and after 20mins, they finally served us our coffee! They were both average coffee. Not too sure why it took them so bloody long. Hand roast and manual grinding the coffee beans? Coffee wasn't served with sugar as well. Mr. had to self-served himself at the coffee bench for sugar.


On the left, Mr. normal cappuccino and right my soy cappuccino.

Breakky was served after more than 30mins from making the order. The bonus was at least it arrived.


I ordered Scramble egg on Sourdough Toast with Wild Mushrooms. I seldom have scramble egg and wasn't sure what make a good scramble egg. But I kinda like this as it wasn't too creamy. As told there were 5 different types of mushrooms in this dish.


Mr. ordered a French Onion Soup with was BLAND! There wasn't any actual flavour in the soup. Can't even taste the stock if they actually used any.


Mr. also ordered Chicken and Porcini Mushroom Pie. The pie was filled with chicken, chicken and more chicken. Chicken pieces was a bit dried. I suspected chicken breast meat were used. There wasn't a single slice of porcini mushroom found. The potato and pea puree was surprisingly good.


Also had a Pear Tart to share. The tart base was crunchy but the filling was hard. I can taste almond in the filling.

We were fairly disappointed at this point by the service and the food. While Mr. was paying the bill, I was spending more time observing the macarons on display. They looked colourful with feets but different. Basic flavour and the only flavour that stand out was Bubblegum.



We decided to give it a try and got a Coconut with White Chocolate. Peeping in from the tiny holes on the shell, it looks empty in the middle. But I was wrong, it exceeded our expectation. It was both crunchy on the surface of the shell and chewy on the inside.





Still wondering how the coconut manage to stay white after it was baked in the oven. Anyone know the trick?

Will we return? Honestly, doubt so.

Red Cup Cafe

Those who stay in Eastern suburb especially Doncaster, Doncaster East, Box Hill, Nunawading, Donvale will know it's pretty hard to find a decent cafe for breakky without venturing too far. I'm quite familiar with the area partly because my work office used to be along whitehorse road and presently staying that area.

When I 1st spotted Red Cup Cafe, I was pretty happy as it looked promising. A bright red vespa parked out at the front of the shop daily. I take that as a indication that's it's open for the day business.
I had never managed to step into the cafe and give it a try as I always ended up with Asian breakky as Box Hill had so much to offer. Finally last week, Mr. and me decided to have a go. Never try, never know attitude.

The cafe was pretty packed considering it was on a Friday morning. Mr. had his usual cappuccino and me soy cappuccino which I didn't remember to take any picture. Nothing special just a ordinary cup of coffee.

While deciding what to have, we both did notice the price of each dish was rather high. At least $16+ for a plate of breakfast from memory.

Mr had Mushroon, Feta with Onion Jam on Toast - Onion Jam made the dish very sweet which was nice. Mushroom was pretty well cooked, still juicy. Main star of this dish was definitely the jam.

I had Smoked Salmon with Spinach and Poached Egg on Crumpet - not sure what I was expecting but when I saw the dish, was kinda of disappointed. Charging $18+ for such a small serve. Lucky it had more than a slice of smoked salmon.

We were even more shocked when we paid the bill. Coffee cost us $4.20! $0.50 more for soy. $4.70 for a cup of coffee!!!! That's the most expensive coffee I had in Melbourne!!!! OMG. Spend almost $50 to give this cafe a chance but definitely not going back. Guess I'm to naive to think that it will be nice and reasonable by looking at the crowd. People who eat there must be pretty rich/desperate! I will either continue to stick to Asian breakky or do a bit of drive to nearby surburbs.

Where is the most expensive coffee you had? And how much was it?

Two Asian Kitchens by Adam Liaw

I wasn't into Masterchef from the 1st season and never got suck into the 2nd either. Did watch a bit on the 3rd while having dinner for the past few weeks but can't say I enjoying it or not. Too much drama, too much crying. Let's just says it's a ok dinner table program for the moment.
I got very curious after all the fuss on twitter when Adam Liaw's 1st cookbook was out available on the shelves. I hadn't add any new addition cookbook onto my collection for quite a while and was keen to go thru the recipes in this cookbook. When I finally managed to find 1 in Big W, I bought it. It was the cheapest I can find at Doncaster Westfield. Plus we do love Singapore/Malaysia/Japan style food. Majority of our meals are Asian cuisine so do see myself using the recipes more than the rest of the cookbooks I owned. Maybe? Or just another excuses???

The 1st dish I tried was Fire Chicken (bul dak).


I did change the recipe slightly as my pantry didn't have some of the ingredients and I could find any nashi pear and was too late to try pop into a Oriental supermarket to get some nashi pear. I also tone down the spiciness just in case. The amount stated in the recipe seem to be too much for both of us to handle.

Differences in my version of Fire Chicken

1. I had some chicken drumstick in the freezer so decided to use them instead of whole chicken. Too lazy to chop the whole chicken up into pieces.
2. Ran out of sake (no idea how did that happen as I'm always well stocked). Never bought korean rice wine before so I substitute with japanese rice wine which I found in the pantry. What's the different? Honestly totally clueless.
3. I used korean corn syrup instead of honey/rice malt syrup/mul yut (korean malt syrup). Assuming this is a korean style dish can't go wrong substituting ingredients with korean stuff right?
4. To ensure the dish is not going to be too spicy, instead of using 3 tbsp of chilli powder, I used 2. Skipped the red birds eye chillies.
5. I do know korean like to use nashi pear for sweetness when marinating meat. I'm guessing nashi pear acts the same in this recipe. Since I can't find any, I replaced it with onion. Adam told me on twitter that apple should do the job as well. Why didn't that occur to me?? hmmmm.

This recipe is a keeper for me. Both of us enjoyed the dish. Reducing the amount of chilli into this dish was a smart call because this dish was still a bit too spicy to have it on it's own. But great having it with white rice.

2nd dish I tried was Seafood Char Kway Teow.


This time round, I sticked to the recipe especially on the sauce. Did use my own version of chicken stock. Stir-frying this dish using a cast iron wok brings so much wok-hei flavour to the dish. With my homemade chilli paste, it taste even better than some of the others sold in restaurant. 

3rd dish I tried was Beef Rendang.


This dish was my contribution for the Adam Liaw Cookbook Feast which was orgainsed together with a few friends. Each of us was to pick a dish from the cookbook, prepared it and eat it together. Great idea especially able to test out a few recipes in 1 sitting.

Additional dishes we had for the night:

1. Black Hokkien Noodles
2. Nasi Lemak
3. Green Tea and Pea Corquettes.
4. Mango Pudding
5. Pearl Pudding
6. Nine Layer Cake (Kuih Lapis)

I'm not going to include the above mention dishes as I'm not the one who prepared it. Not sure did they stick to the recipe or not.

I did try to stick to the recipe on this dish as well. Might had added a bit too much turmeric for the base paste. As there's a few friends who can't take spicy food at all, I decreased the number of red birds-eye chillies from 6 to 4.

The beef was so soft and melts in the mouth after the long duration of cooking. It smells fantastic guessing because of coconut but it wasn't as flavoursome. Something was missing but I can't pinpoint what it was.

The 4th dish I tried till present was Black Belly.


I was suprised how simple and easy this dish was. Very nice caramelisation on the pork which I like.Mr. loved it too.

The 5th dish I tried was Gong Bao Chicken which I can't find a picture off!!! ARGH!!!
As usual, I decreased the amount of dried chillies but I will increase the amount of sichuan peppercorn next time I cook this dish. I prefered to have cashew nuts in my Gong Bao Chicken so I replace peanuts with cashew nuts. But as for the sauce, it was much taster than off the shelves bottles ones.

Just remembered, I also did the Chilli and Garlic Oil which I didn't take any picture. It was spicy and serving it together with my egg noddles.

I did make full use of this cookbook right?

En Izakaya

It's a long weekend in Melbourne but Mr being working night shift since Friday.
"Let's head out for dinner tonight" was what he said when he got home this morning. He was planning to try out Melbourne new hot spot Chin Chin and in order to make sure we get a seat, he planned to arrive at 4pm even though it open at 5pm! But we didn't manage to leave home till 5pm due to some car issue. Got to change the plan last minute as it's pretty slim in getting a table straight without waiting.

As we aren't keen on steak as we had Culter & Co. lined up next weekend, decided to go for Japanese and started web surfing for a new spot to try. Came upon an article on Agenda "Top 5 for Japanese" and we picked En Izakaya partly it's not located in the city. Felt we had higher chance of getting a table and guess we were right.

When we arrived at 7pm, the place was less than half filled. But gradually it was fully packed as the night goes on. Did notice the crowd was made up of majority matured locals.

We started the dinner with Miso Soup with Tuna and Tofu. Didn't managed to take a reasonable picture of this dish. The tuna pieces were fresh and firm. Soup wasn't too saltish too.


Next was A selection of salmon sushi. The sushi was very well cooked and seasoned. It was sweet and not over sour. The seaweed was still crispy which also indicate it was freshly made  and rice wasn't wet which prevent the seaweed from turning soggy.

We also ordered a bowl of rice each and were disappointed it wasn't short gain Japanese rice. Considering the price they charged, we felt it was pricy.


Braised free range Otway pork belly flavoured with soy, mirin & honey - then flamed
The gravy was really sweet, full of honey. But the meat was so soft and it just melts in the mouth. I did enjoy this dish considering I'm not really a pork person.


South Australian Coffin Bay oysters served natural and tempura battered


Very nicely executed, I can still taste the sea even though it was seasoned.


Nothing amazing but it didn't feel oily even though it was deep fried. Majority of the dish almost all came at the same time. Table even ran out of space to fit in all the last dish. We both were busy taking photos and tasting. By the time we had this dish, batter had gone a bit soggy.


Soba noodles marinated in a cold soy & mirin broth - with wasabi coated cucumber, zucchini & tomato. This is a dish perfect for summer as it's served cold and taste very refreshing. Wasabi wasn't strong, was totally opposite. I would loved stronger and more wasabi. Come summer, I will definitely try to re-create this dish in my own kitchen.


Queensland spanner crab omelette with shiitake and shimeji mushrooms
Omelette was nicely done, still slightly soggy on the inside with chunks of spanner crab meat and mushrooms hidden inside.


Thinly sliced grade 9+ wagyu beef blade flamed and served on wasabi coated silk tofu
This was the dish of the night. Wasabi was very lightly coated on the tofu. Wagyu beef was very thinly sliced, lightly seasoned and cooked. Beef was still soft and not chewy. The combination just works.


Our tummy could fit in more after all the above dishes and got the waitress recommended  Seared momen tofu and miso infused eggplant oven baked as the final dish for the night.
The tofu was deep fried, crispy on the outside but silky soft on the inside. Did felt there was too much miso coated on the tofu. Egg plant was soft, creamy with the skin still intact.

They had two desserts for selection and we decided to order one each. There's always space for dessert + dessert is another compartment in the tummy.


Soy Panna Cotta with Red Bean
This was the preferred dessert out of the two. We were trying to figure out what was actually the white strip looking ingredient but was totally clueless! Did an enquiry and found out it was actually a kind of japanese vegetable like white radish. Not very sure it was the original taste or it was pickled. Panna Cotta was soft, Red Bean was sweet and Vegetable was slightly crunchy and sour. I actually enjoy it and finished more than half by myself.


Green Tea and Banana Ice Cream
Can't really taste the Green Tea as the Banana as overpowering. Still trying to figure is it banana essence or real whole banana was used in this dessert. But did taste slight sourness in between the banana so maybe lime as well?

Felt this was a more modern style of Japanese food. Not something which we usually go for as both of us preferred more traditional Japanese etc sashimi and sushi. But we still enjoy tonight dinner a lot.