Happy Halloween!

Tomorrow is Halloween, a time of the year I have honestly never cared less about throughout my entire life. But it was this time last year that my Mum and I were heading to New York and so from this year onwards I have decided to celebrate the anniversary of that trip by celebrating Halloween! And it's just not Halloween without some pumpkin carving:

 The pickings were pretty slim at Coles but this was the nicest one we could find weighing in at a good 6kg

 Off with its head!

 Keeping it nice and simple for our very first carving experience - one of Martha Stewart's designs

 Done!

A big thank you to Mr Ng for actually doing all the hard work while I supervised haha..
I've been waking up these past few mornings half expecting some feral animal to be chewing on it but so far soaking the entire pumpkin in bleach for 30 minutes has managed to keep it safe (for now). And hopefully the Vaseline we smeared all over the exposed areas will keep it from turning brown before tomorrow.

Happy Halloween everyone :)

Long Weekend In Melbourne

Ahh Melbourne. The city has always had a special place in my heart ever since the time Mr Ng and I first went almost ten years ago for our very first holiday away together. I truly love it there - everything from the food to the atmosphere to the shopping..But I haven't been for close to two years now and so we took advantage of the Labour Day Monday public holiday at the beginning of this month and headed on down for the long weekend.

As usual I shall start with some food pics this time at Laksa King in Flemington for a very late dinner:

  still busy at almost 9pm

Mr Ng's chicken curry laksa

a disappointing chicken rice to share

my assam laksa

We both had REALLY high expectations for this place considering all the rave reviews I had read online as well as the fact that one of Mr Ng's colleagues from Melbourne declared it to have the best laksa in town but I have to say we were both a little disappointed. Ok, so the laksas were good (but not great - Mr Ng said he still  prefers the one at Malay Chinese Takeaway on Hunter Street in the city) but I tend to judge places by their chicken rice and the one here was just so very bad. I suppose that's why the restaurant's called 'Laksa King' and not 'Chicken Rice King' though so if I ever go back, I will stick to the laksa.

It was then off to check-in at the hotel and this time we again decided to stay at The Blackman in St. Kilda, mainly because we were renting a car and didn't want to pay the exorbitant valet parking fees at hotels in the city centre and also because we were really quite impressed with the hotel the last time we stayed here back in 2010 shortly after it had opened. I'm happy to say it was just as good this time round as it was back then:

our spacious deluxe studio suite

great view from the balcony

Our first morning in Melbourne always starts off with breakfast at The European on Spring Street in the city  and this time was no different:

Mr Ng's mandatory mocha

the European breakfast for the man

hands down the best pikelets I have ever had in my life

The rest of the day was then spent at the pub for the AFL grand final for Mr Ng and hitting the shops in the city for me, a very good arrangement indeed ;)

It was then on to dinner at Ezard on Flinders Lane, another very late dinner since we had booked quite last minute and so only managed to get a 9.30pm reservation. Thank goodness we decided on the three-course fixed price menu as opposed to the degustation as we were falling asleep by the second course..

 amuse bouche to start

char-siu quail starter for Mr Ng

potato gnocchi starter for me

chinese style roast duck main for the husband

 my john dory (I regret not going with the snapper or barramundi)

 a side of fried kipfler potatoes - a must!

 Mr Ng's honey crunch ice-cream dessert

my fromage frais pannacotta

I think the dishes you select if you go with the three-course menu here will really make or break Ezard for you. I enjoyed each of my dishes enough but will most definitely choose other items on the menu if I were to go back. Mr Ng on the other hand said that this was definitely one of the better meals he has had at a fining dining restaurant so perhaps his choices are the way to go.

The next day started off with breakfast at Cumulus Inc. also located on Flinders Lane:

busy Sunday morning crowd

 

This was the first time here for both of us but I don't think Mr Ng was too impressed given the lack of 'sausage, bacon and eggs' on the menu. But whatever, I enjoy this kind of breakfast more than fatty bacon and egg ones.

Topshop was next on the agenda (although I think the Sydney store kinda blows Melbourne's outta the water), followed by a bit of wandering around Chadstone and then it was an early dinner at Carlton Espresso on Lygon Street:

my new favourite non-alcoholic drink, now if only I could find it here..

Ok, I had really been looking forward to this place since Mr Ng kept on going on and on about how he had heard from so many people that this was one of the best Italian restaurants in town but the pappardelle was so crunchy it actually got stuck in my teeth! The spaghetti was better but still a bit harder than I would have preferred..or perhaps truly authentic pasta should be crunchy and not al dente and maybe I've been eating poorly cooked pasta all along?! Anyways I am willing to re-visit this place simply because the service here is lovely and it was almost a full house and everybody else seemed to be enjoying their pasta so maybe it was just ours.

For our third and final breakfast we again decided to try somewhere new, this time The Hardware Societe on Hardware Street in the city. And I think this is now my favourite breakfast joint in Melbourne:

 

fantastic hot chocolate

Mr Ng was very impressed with his mocha as well declaring it to be one of the best 'modern' mochas he has had

 

yay for healthy breakfasts! well mine was anyway

And then after a bit more walking around - which included stocking up on 1kg of Famous Amos cookies lol - it was on to a final lunch at Laksa Bar which wasn't too bad at all:

 

And then it was off to the airport :(

But now on to the fun stuff - shopping highlights of the trip. And as always Melbourne never fails to disappoint on the shopping front:

my first pair of Tkees flip flops, was so excited to see them in the window at Husk

 

 sale buys from David Jones, so happy!

my first dresses from Topshop

MiH Marrakesh jeans in the Nico wash, can't wait to wear these in Summer

No more trips planned until the end of the year now so I am on a strict shopping ban from now until then! (stop rolling your eyes now Mr Ng..)

2012 Sugar Hit Preview at Azuma

Last week my good friend Bisycl over at YaYa's Yums Yums was kind enough to invite me to be her +1 at a special bloggers preview for this year's Sugar Hit at Azuma. She was telling me that every now and then restaurants will invite the writers of popular food blogs to special tastings and I think this is such a smart (and simple!) thing for restaurants to do given the huge number of followers that some of these blogs have. I must admit though I did feel a little out of my league taking pictures on my little Blackberry as opposed to the bigass SLR's that some of the others had. Perhaps I need to take my blogging a little more seriously lol..

canapes to start - these bloggers have it good!

 Brown Brothers Cienna Rosso - seriously nice

East meets West Dessert Bento Box - sake sample, marble gateaux cookies, gateaux chocolat

kawaii panna cotta, home-made yuzu sorbet

Sugar Hit-ers will be given either the plum (the sweetest and my favourite), yuzu nigori or nigori sake sample depending on the night, but we were fortunate enough to sample all three

For me the panna cotta was definitely the standout especially with all the brown sugar jelly at the bottom. The sorbet was tasty but the popping sparkles continued to pop down my throat which was a very strange feeling indeed. And just when we though the night was over, we were each given a bottle of this as a parting gift:

 

The folks over at Azuma really do know how to make you feel special!

The Azuma Sugar Hit costs $20 and is available nightly from 9-11pm until the end of the month. Just be sure to book in advance ;)

Stella McCartney Lingerie

For years I've been faithful to the same brands for all my underwear needs: Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret and Bonds/Jockey. I dabbled in a little bit of Simone Perele and Princesse Tam Tam but always went back to my trusty old faves - when I find something I like I really stick with it. But it looks like I may have finally found a new obsession in the form of Stella McCartney lingerie. How could I resist with packaging like this?

I've always wanted  a '7 days of the week' set of underwear but after numerous hints over the years to Mr Ng resulted in nothing I decided to gift these to myself! These are AUD199 at selected David Jones stores but I managed to get them during the store's 20% off full-price promotion last week. They come in black as well as a very light pink shade and are also available at Net-A-Porter.

And now that the weather's starting to warm up I'm in the mood for a little more colour, it gets so boring wearing the same old black/nude bras day in and day out..

These retail for AUD69 but there is a postcard floating around some of the DJ's lingerie departments which will give you $10 off any Stella bra purchased until 31st October. Most of the bras I saw were priced in the $69-89 range which I think is really good considering how pretty some of the designs are. But most importantly these are actually comfortable! Sorry my beloved Seductive Comforts, I think I have found your replacement :)