Tim Tam Special @ Gloria Jeans

We shopping the other day in the city and felt thirsty.. Saw the sign from Gloria Jeans advertising their special drinks and decided to give it a go!

I don't really like Chocolate.. Just the white one, but the chocolate experts always say that 'white chocolate' isn't exactly chocolate, as it doesn't contain cocca.

Anyway...

I ordered the white tim tam, bf ordered the original tim tam. I had a taste of his, found it bland. My white one however was on the sweet side. I guess it's also because the original tim tam (which is made of the real chocolate) would taste a little bitter naturally, whereas white tim tam IS sweet.

Costing $5.90 each.. I reckon I will give it a go again next time I need a drink... And, I'll stick to my white tim tam one if it is still available. Either that, or I'll go for either of the fruit chillers (non dairy alternative).. I also heard that their Creme Brulee Espresso Chiller, and their Cookies and Cream Mocha Chiller is yummy too. But then again, who doesn't make a good cookies and cream drink shouldn't still be in business!

Also, remember to ask them for one of their frequent sipper cards! Buy 10 drinks and you will get the 11th free!

Lobster special @ Burswood Casino!

Being a burswood club member, I always get email updates about what's going on at Burswood. Saw their crayfish special for $14.95 and decided to give it a try!

The special comes with..1) half a crayfish2) little salad

3) some chips

4) a drink (choice of the xxxx summer beer,

glass of white, glass of red, or a soft drink)..

As you can see, the crayfish is really quite small. I took it out of the shell with a bit of force, and just bit into it, as if I was holding on to a piece of chicken drumstick from KFC and biting on it. To be honest, I could eat two portions easily. After that very quick meal (which was shorter than the time we spent queuing up to pay, and then be served), we made a quick drive to the near by Belmont Forum for more food!

This mean is very cheap, but it isn't filling, and everything's served really cold. Please go in with the expectation of being served from a counter like chicken from KFC, just that this one sits on ice instead of the heater!

Deal is on till 28th February. So enjoy!

Zafferano Italian Restaurant

Went there on a nice quiet weeknight... and ordered quite a lot of food!

Tried their 'Ciabatta".. It's actually 'char grilled with vine ripened roma tomatoes, persian feta, and basil puree. Being a non-feta fan, I had some troubles finishing that little slice! The tomatoes were good tho!

The we had this blue crab pasta as entree. This was superb! the chilli gave it a nice little twist, and the crab was so fresh and (sea) salty! The chef did a fantastic job at removing the shell! Also, this is a special of the day! Guess it's seasonal because you can't get good crabs all year round and it's the crabbing season right now!

For mains, I also ordered the special of the day.. The Lobster with salmon roe! I personally did not like roe (or any type of fish except for canned tuna) so I a few of the roes, and left it at the side. The lobster was grilled nicely, bringing out the freshness of the lobster!

I tried their 'apple dougnuts' fro desserts. Didn't really like it as it was too oily. It also didn't have much apple taste in it. The portion was really too much for one. I reckon it should be shared amongst three to four friends, if not it will be too filling! If I go back there again, I would like to try their crepes! A customer at the other table ordered it, and it was cooked right in front of them! (I think it was) the owner who cooked it. He kind of burnt the crepe inside the pan as well.

All in all, I would not mind going back to the restaurant again. Maybe to try something on their main menu, and this time, just entree and main. No need for breads.. And maybe the crepe for dessert to share! Have a look at their website!

Ipoh Garden Restaurant

This hot summer afternoon, the boyfriend and I made an impromtu lunch visit to the Ipoh Garden restaurant on Canning Highway.

Usually we would order a Ipoh Ho fun each, and a serve of their very popular (and yummy) chicken pieces, but we felt different this time, and went for something 'new'..

I chose the Hainanese Chicken Rice. The

rice and sauce was alright, tasted just as what I expected, but the chicken was too dry. I guess it was probably because I was given the chicken breast, which tends to be dry. But Hey! That's the healthier part of the chicken so I shouldn't be complaining right? Eaten on

its own, the chicken was still tasteless. Sigh.

Another down side was that the chicken did not come with cucumber! If you didn't know, when the cucumber soaks up the brown sauce that comes with the chicken, it actually tastes very nice!

The boyfriend tried their 'weekend special', Nasi Lemak. It also came with a

choice of either Beef Rendang, or chicken curry. He loves beef rendang, so chose that to go with the egg,

sambal, prawn, papadum and peanuts. No complaints about everything. So I suppose it's all great!

This is a place I would return to, as the prices are low ($9.9 for chicken rice, $10 for nasi lemak special, and $2.2 for a can drink), plus you get some service instead of the self-service you get a a food court! IF you do go there, do try their home made herbal tea as well. It comes in a big bottle, so do arrange to share it with a friend or two!

Big Breakfast @ Margaret River Chocolate Factory.

One place I would bring my visitors to Perth whenever they come is the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. But I'm lazy. I would normally just drive up to the one in Swan Valley (about 1 hour north of Perth via Great Eastern Highway)! Either one, they sell the same stuff - yummy chocolates!

The first thing everyone does when they enter is to head straight to the chocolate tasting bowls and help themselves to the free chocolate tastings! People who have

warm hands have to be very careful (especially in Summer)! I normally lay a piece of tissue on my hands just so I don't get melted chocolate on my palms!

One of the items on my list for my visitor to try was the Big Breakfast. It so happened that we were all hungry and at the cafe, so decided to give their big breakfast a try. It was my first time trying their big Breakfast. Like all other big breakfast we were given some toast (sometimes a range of bread will be offered), eggs (either scrambled or fried, some other cafes have poached eggs as well), mushrooms, grilled tomato, baked beans, sausague, bacon. Margaret River Chocolate Factory's big breakfast also come with capsicum relish! I didin't give it a try tho, as I'm not a capsicum fan.

I personally will go for wholemeal bread (or any special ones that cafes offer cause I love trying new bread), and scrambled eggs with cracked pepper! I'll occasionally go for poached eggs as I love how the egg yolk melts in y

our mouth when you swallow it whole!

The scrambled eggs at Margaret River Chocolate factory actually had some cheese in it! First time I had scrambled eggs like that, and it tasted great!

I personally would order a pot of earl grey tea to go with my breakfast, the boyfriend will either have iced chocolate or a form of hot coffee. Either way, everything goes well with big breakfast!

This is worth the try next time anyone goes there.

Something else worth trying is their fondue for two. From memory, you are given a whole range of things to dip into the yummy chocolate. Dried fruits, fresh strawberries, marshmallow, liquorice etc.. It's more of an afternoon tea thing for me, and were were there only for the morning, so didn't manage to try it!

San Churro Chocolateria

I'm not sure how long they have been in Perth, or whether they belong to Perth, or if they are a totally Australian Company, but their drinks and churros are yummy!

I went there on a warm Sunday afternoon with the boyfriend, and his visitor-sister from the States.

We ordered a smoothie each , and a c

hurros for two. Smoothies were great as usual (costing $7.5 each). My favourite would still be the white chocolate raspberry one, as the sourness of the raspberry pieces would offset the sweetness of the white chocolate. If you do look around ice cream place like New Zealand Natural and Gelare, they also have a ice cream flavour called "white chocolate raspberry".

One must have when you're at San Churro is their Churros. If you're in a group of 2-3, the Churros for 2 is great as there's 6 in a serve with 2 quite-sweet dips (choice of either

white chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate). The Churros also come with a sprinkle of eithe

r cinnamon powder or icing sugar. I personally prefer cinnamon powder! If you're in a bigger group, do be a bit mo

re daring and try their full churro platter as it will come with 6 dips (had it before, but can't remember what the other three were. I'll post again when I do get it.) Churros @ San Churro are quite different from the Churros you get at the fairs as they are smaller and shorter in size, and doesn't not have that big a hollow hole like the big long ones..

Things are a little dear in San Churros compared to other places that do premium smoothies, however, when I go there, it's to go for the Churros as afternoon tea afte

r shopping at the Subiaco markets. Weekend afternoons are very packed there. So be prepared to wait a while for seats!

Wombat shall start!

2011.

2011 new year.

2011 new year resolution.

2011 new year resolution to start a food blog!