Max Brenner, Australia

I remember the first time I stepped into Max Brenner, it was in Singapore with my ex years ago.


Max Brenner in Melbourne Central


I was overwhelmed by the fact there's actually a cafe that sold and served nothing but chocolates and chocolate related desserts and drinks. Everything about the outlet was chocolate-y,







I was awe strucked by the list of items they have in the menu and took almost forever to decide what drink I wanted to have.


Some chocolate shake


Last year I visited my fair share of Max Brenner in Australia and has tried a considerable selection of items off their menu.


No, I didn't have this. But was tempted to!


Strangely I found my first experience years ago was much better in terms of food quality and selection.

Memory failing me these days, was this what they called the First Love Perfection?


Two of their signature drinks were the Hugmug and Suckao (a type of drink where you can adjust how chocolate rich the drink is by stirring chocolate buttons into hot milk).




The Hugmug is a specially created mug where you hug your hot drink in both hands warming them in cold winter. It's a very cozy drink to have with your love ones.




My recommendation would be the Chocolate with Crunchy Waffle Balls, prized at AUD5.50. Milk chocolate as the favorable choice.

Awesomely nice.


Of course if you do not like chocolate, you can always opt for tea.




But hey, why go to a chocolate cafe then?



Max Brenner
Melbourne - Melbourne Central
Shop OE5, Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, 300 La
Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000.

Phone Number: +61 3 9662 4442

Opening Hours:
* Mon - Thurs - 8:00am - 10:00pm
* Fri - 8:00am - 12 Midnight
* Sat -10:00am - 12 Midnight
* Sun- 10:00am - 10:00pm

Best Hot Cocoa in Australia @ Brunetti

Brunetti in Melbourne, Australia serves the best Italian Hot Cocoa.




Located in City Square, I stumbled upon this cafe by chance during one rainy weather and needed a hide out till the sun comes out.




Perhaps fated, I fell instantly in love with this wondrous rich concoction that blew my mind away.

Never had I have such intense hot cocoa, ever!




The texture butts in somewhere between hot chocolate mousse/cream and full cream milk.

It was AMAZING. One glass enough to last through a rainy afternoon.





Brunetti City Square

214 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia

Phone: (03) 9663 8085 or +613 9663 8085
Fax: (03) 9662 3360


Hours of Operation (Cafe):

Monday – Thursday (7am – 7pm)
Friday (7am – 12am)
Saturday (8am – 12am)
Sunday (8am – 7pm)

Fish and Chip at Beachcomber, Melbourne

Down at St Kilda beach in Melbourne, lies a pretty little shack (or restaurant cum pub looking expensive little joint) by the beach, where they serve pretty neat Fish and Chips.




Catch of the day is a must eat at Beachcomber, it's always the best. At RM26, it's rather pricey but it's up to you to justify if the food is worth the price. I thought it was pretty good, but maybe a tad bit over-priced.




Henry and I ordered fresh oysters for starter.




Catch of the day comes with a free champagne.




With cute strawberry on top. It wasn't bad. However, having sweet tooth, I ordered a Botrytis Semillon to go with the wait.




One word: lovely.
Remember, it's Sevenhill Botrytis Semillon. Yummy.

Finally, our catch of the day arrived.




It was much smaller than I had anticipated, seeing that it was served in Australia and technically everything served here was big.

I have to note, however, despite all and all, the flesh of the fish, was divine!




It was succulent, soft, juicy and simply delicious!





Rating: 3.5/5


Beachcomber Cafe
10-18 Jacka Boulevard
St Kilda 3182

Star House Chinese Restaurant, Adelaide

The best Dim Sum / Yum Cha I ever had, surprisingly, was not in Hong Kong nor China's Shanghai or Guangzhou;

the best I had was located wayyyy away from any parts of Chinese region, it was in fact in Australia.




Last year I was brought to this restaurant for breakfast at Star House in China Town, Adelaide.

And the dish completely blown me away.

Far far away.


Almost every single dish that was served was amazing. Take the chicken feet for example, I've never tastsed chicken feet more succulent and full (usually they're very skin-ny and bony, hardly any meat-feel at all), I don't know where did they get their chicken from because those were the fullest chicken feet ever, of skin and meat?

Normally I never order pork ribs during Dim Sum, not because I don't like pork ribs (I adore them), it's just that they always tasted so wrong. It's either very jelly-like or very fatty or very gooey.




But this was perfect. The meat was tender, soft, full, lean, and the sauce absolutely fragrant.





This was the only single dish that did not blow my mind off. The turnip cake was alright, good, but not fantastic. It stood hard competiting against the rest of the award winning dish in my heart.





The har gao was very filling too, prawns were juicy, but nothingto shout about, however when compared to Malaysia standard, it's pretty good actually.





OMG. I love this. Wu Gok, my all time favourite, complete bias review. Enough said.





Never been a fan of Siew Mai, but this was very meaty, reminded me of the siew mai in Hong Kee Tim Sum in Puchong Malaysia I had one few occasions.





Oh I adored this dish. It's like some tofu jelly of almond and some.. fruit taste. I coudn't remember, was it Lychee? It was really good, subtle and soft, bouncy and gorgeous.

But when it came to dessert, nothing, I say, NOTHING beats this god forsaken heavenly loved MANGO PUDDING. Top with thick milk.




The only ever mango dessert that ever made me swoon was the mango pudding with bird nest jelly in Hong Kong, and this completely blew me off the tops!!!

It was SO good, I couldn't resist having seconds! And I NEVER had seconds!



It has the softest, juiciest, fruitiest, mango-ey, sweetish-simply-melt-in-your-mouth texture ever!

I am going to have this everyday when I visit Adelaide again this year.

We then end it with a little bit of Tao Fu Fa (soya jelly), very fragrant. I never liked the TFF, but this was actually pretty good that I could sit down to slowly sip through each soft bite tenderly.





Rating: 4/5 (5/5 to the mango pudding alone!)



Star House Chinese Restaurant
1/39 Gouger Street
ADELAIDE SA 5000
Tel: 08 8221 6303
Fax: 08 8221 6303
Email: omiyi61@hotmail.com

Angelic Tea & Scone House

Let me impress you with this little cafe my baby brought me.

Because it made me fall head over heels love at first sight with it.












*Photos were taken before Christmas*





It's called Angelic.

A perfect location for the perfect English afternoon tea.




It's set out for middle-upper class gents and ladies, or couples, who like to have an afternoon tea chit-chatting away in a small, comfortable, very home-y setting.




At RM26 you get a set of afternoon tea - tea, scone and cake. Sometimes the lady of the cafe will throw in complimentary homemade cookies for your consumption at the end of your tea.

It's really no ordinary experience.




They used Royal Albert teacups and saucers. (note: a fav of my mom's and mine)

Bone China from England, Royal Albert teacup and saucer can cost up to RM300 per set in Malaysia, much cheaper in Singapore, and much cheaper in England.

But it's not a cheap collection for those who collects bone china, like me.

The rim of the China are coated with 22k real gold.


Love their tea. (pic: house blend tea)


Imprinted with very delicate flower prints, the most famous print was the Old Country Rose, as shown in the photo above, of which I bought two sets and a mini milk jug for my mom's birthday (with my bro's $ :p).

Don't get my started on their scones.




It's not your conventional shape of scone. But it's home-made, warm when served, and utterly gorgeous.


Rating: 4/5 (environment and services were amazing, so far only had afternoon tea set)



Angelic Tea & Scone House
H-01, Plaza Damas,
65, Jalan Sri Hartamas 1,
Taman Sri Hartamas,
50489 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 603 62031794

Cocolat, Adelaide

I love Australia for one reason and one reason only (food wise).

They have amazingly good chocolate cafes.




Where the restaurant or cafe serves all that is chocolate-y.

In Adelaide, it's COCOLAT.




I met up with Casey and Bryan and Jessie in Cocolat on my third day in Adelaide. All of which were my readers whom I met for the first time during my stay in Australia.

Walking into Cocolat was like entering heaven for the first time for me.




Everything there was either utterly sinful or deliciously attractive, it took me all my will power to not order everything on the menu or off the shelf.




From chocolates, to ice creams, to drinks to cakes!




Especially their cakes.


Tell me, how can you resist that?!


Even though we weren't that hungry, we opted for two cakes in the end.

Over a cup of hot milk cocoa and white chocolate.


My hot cocoa



Jessie's white chocolate


We didn't really like the white chocolate, it was too sweet, even after the second attempt of sending back to remake it. Hudson's definitely had better.

We had a piece of white orange chocolate cake and dark chocolate if I was not mistaken.














Now, truth be told. They're good. Yea they were. But not as good as they appeared to be. I would give them 7 out of 10. half extra point of which for good presentation.

It wasn't disappointing, the atmosphere was good. Company was what contributed my good experience there. I would definitely go back for memory sake. However, as a chocolate critic, it was a tad bit disappointing on the taste sector.


Rating: 3.5/5

Cocolat Boutique - inside Darriwill Farms Store
162 b King William Road
Hyde Park 5061
Adelaide, Australia

Hudson Coffee, Australia

New year new post.

Yep and I shall start with Hudson Coffee from Adelaide Australia. You can find them in Queensland too.

The one thing I like about Hudson Coffee was that they served fantastic hot white chocolate.

I never tasted any white chocolate drink that I liked before in my life, in fact, I don't even like white chocolate itself.

But Hudson Coffee changed all that.

I ordered a cup of hot cocoa when I first landed in Adelaide, with marshmellows, a side I've always taken just to be on the safe spot.




It was really good. Sweet, but not overall dying sweet sweet. But it was really sweet, and nice, and warm-ish hot. (hot, but slightly on the warm side)

But it was till my reader-turn-friend Jessie who ordered the white chocolate, and I stole a sip from, that I actually quite liked the taste.

It's not as bad.

It was pretty good, to be honest.




The muffin we had was pretty good too. Huge, and wasn't able to finish it.


Yep, if you do drop by Hudson one day, order a cup of hot white chocolate. You'll never see white chocolate drink the same way again.