Hello~

It's the 24th of September today and it's Teacher's Day in Brunei! The actual date's yesterday but since it falls on a Sunday this year, we're celebrating it today!

Happy Teacher's Day to all the teachers who have taught and guided me, teachers who I am still learning from right now and also the teachers who I have yet to meet! THANK YOU for all the teachings, patience, care and support all these years! I know it's not easy to be a teacher ;)

One more thing, my old blog, ichigo-blast.blogspot.com is back! Click here to have a look! :)

Alright, here are the expired  photos from the fasting period early last month. I did not have enough time to blog about them before going on my Seoul trip so here they are!

For past entries on this year's Sungkai Buffet:
1) Cheezbox Cafe & Restaurant here.
2) Kimchi Restaurant here.
3) More info from Food Guide here.

First set of photos are from Fun Wok Hong Kong Restaurant in Kiulap. Second set of photos at the bottom of this post are from my second visit to Cheezbox Cafe & Restaurant(yeah I know! my most favourite Sungkai Place ever! hehe).

Fun Wok Hong Kong Restaurant

The Sungkai Buffet is B$19.90 per adult and B$11.90 per child. For reservations, their phone number is 223 2397.

Went there with my niece after work one evening. It was our first time to Fun Wok that day. As usual, we usually arrive after 6.30pm so people could break their fast first. We were given menus to put our orders and after looking at them for some time, we ordered our food.

The menu

Dim sum menu!

Buttermilk chicken

YUMS!

Tofu sechuan style.

Too peppery and starchy for our likings.

Yes, they even have DIM SUM for Sungkai Buffet! Awesome or what?

Dim sum's not as good as non halal ones but it's not bad really!

Borsch soup?

Hmmm.. this's not my kind of soup.

Fried Hong Kong Kailan.

Prawn with salted egg.

OMG THIS IS THE BEST!!! :D

I'd go back there for this for their a la carte!

Beef with ginger and onion.

LOVE THIS TOO!

Sizzling Japanese tofu.

Fried rice with beef strips and broccoli.

This's my first time seeing broccoli being used in fried rice and I must say it's goooood!

Yeah, as you can see from the photos, the food was fit for ONE WHOLE FAMILY and both of us had a really hard time trying to eat as much as we could! We finished everything except for the soup and sechuan tofu. Are we monster or what? LOL

Thank goodness they didn't charge extra on us. :)

Few evenings later......

Cheezbox Cafe & Restaurant

In case you haven't read my other post on Cheezbox, their Sungkai Buffet is B$24.90 per adult and B$14.90 per child. Their phone number is 242 5506/7.

This is my second trip to Cheezbox for their Sungkai Buffet this year! Woohooo! I can say they are my most favourite! I didn't take much photos that night since I took a lot in my previous visit as I was enjoying the food and catching up with my sister, niece and cousin.

Desserts first!

Ice cream, bread pudding, tarts, jelly and cake.

LOVE THE BREAD PUDDING! 

Never lets me down :)

Cream of corn and prawn tempura.

This cream of corn my friend, is the best ever! How did they make it so yummy? 

Main course! Salad, lamb, salmon etc

Ended the meal with fruits and more ice cream!

Really wanted to eat their mango ice cream but they didn't have it that day.
*sigh*
I'll try my luck next year!

And this is the end of the Sungkai Buffet posts for 2012. Another year to go for the next round!

Have a nice week guys!

Hello~

Life has been good so far. More friends are coming back for good and it's good to see them again. You know how reminiscing old times bring so much laughter? All those silly things that we did together back in high school.

:)

 Workload is bearable so yeah, more time to update this space!

Just a short funny thing to share before I start. When I got home from work today, I was told that our pet dog went (ran as told by our maid) after my car (I had no idea about that) while I was going to work this morning! And that my sister had to chase after me to get the dog back! LOL!

Me driving my car....dog chasing after my car..... sis chasing after the dog in her car~

Imagining that made me laughed out loud for quite a couple of minutes! Oh dear, we have to keep our doors tightly closed from now on! We're lucky I left before the morning crowd or else there'd be so many cars! 

Anyway, this is the continuation of my Melbourne Trip. Enjoy!

 Our coffees~

I love their coffee! My tongue was so spoilt with AWESOME coffees in Melbourne that I suffer the sadness and disappointment every time I have coffee elsewhere.

T.T

Melbourne, what have you done to me?

 Our brunch!!

I can't recall why I didn't take a photo of their menu and so, I'm sorry, I don't know the names of these dishes or even their prices. Just that the potted stuff at the top of the picture's baked eggs with mushrooms and that's bacon at the bottom of the picture. 

But, that salad like thing with salmon near the two cups of eggs was SO GOOD! If you happen to know the names of these two dishes, please let me know!

Since we had savoury brunch, we decided to drop by a dessert place somewhere nearby. And so, we arrived at Creperie Le Triskell after getting soaked again LOL

 So many books! If I'm going back there again next time, I'm so going to sit there and look through the books!

 Karen's hot chocolate.

 Our crepe!!

Soft crepe with real berries and vanilla ice cream inside! Mmmmm... though it was cold but having that raised our happiness! Lol

Girls and desserts will always be a perfect combo!

After satisfying our sweet tooth, we went to this patisserie that sells MACARONS! I think it was just next door? If you know me, you'll know how much I LOVE macarons! Not only do they taste yummy, they look cute, colourful and they are always packaged nicely!

 La Belle Miette

I hope I got the name right!

 Sooooooo pretty!!

 T.T

For the thousandth time I was regretting that I did not bring the camera out that day!

Lovely macarons that I got!

:)

Not long after that, we met up with a friend of mine, who's doing her Masters in Melbourne right now. Since she had class in the afternoon, we could only catch up for a short coffee break before her class.

Oh yes, when in Melbourne, just having ONE cup of coffee a day is IMPOSSIBLE! Have I mentioned that the coffees in Melbourne are SO GOOD?

Karen said the coffee from Manchester Press's really good (or was it the coffee art? lol) so we decided to meet there. It's hidden in one of the many alleys in the city so please use your GPRS on your smart phones!

 The interior. Interesting.

Big bowling pin at the corner.

Cafe's really packed too and we were lucky to get a table for 3 the moment we arrived.

 My flat white with bared tits sexy coffee art.

LOL

 Karen's soy latte with a boy drawing.

 Friend's hot chocolate!

Looks like a pirate to me!

Ahem barista, why was I the only one getting a topless lady on my coffee?

Anyway, coffee art aside, the coffee's really good!

I think it must be the good deeds that I'd done so far to be able to have such good coffees in one day!

:)

Thank you lovely baristas!

Good coffee, good companion, lovely cafe, eye candies bwahahaha chilly weather..... AWESOME!

If you think that's the end of our food session, you're so wrong! There's more ahead!

I don't remember what we did after Manchester Press so let's move on to dinner!

We met up with my cousin and his friend for dinner at this Thai restaurant/bar place.

 Appetizer Kubklam

Since cousin and his friend frequent this place a lot, I let them do the ordering.

Top to bottom:

Deep fried chicken wings.

Thai fish cake.

 Deep fried chicken and lemongrass. This is really good!! Pair that with the spicy chilli sauce! Mmmmm.....

 Our cocktail~

Yums!

 That's the papaya salad on the right and some pork dish on the left.

Papaya salad's not bad but you know, once you've tasted the one in Bangkok, you'll know what I mean. Hehe

 Steamed fish.

We also had tom yam soup but I forgot to take a photo of that. It was too salty to my liking but they love it! 

It was fun having dinner with cousin and his friend cause the four of us do different jobs. Found out lots of stuff from our conversation! 

After we'd filled our stomachs with food and exchanged stories, cousin and his friend had to go home since they have work the following day. But not for us! XD

Seeing that it was still early after dinner, Karen and I dropped by *insert name of pub/cafe/restaurant*. Sorry! It was really random so I really can't remember! If I ever found out the name of this place, I'll update this post! Hehe

Managed to find the name of this place after matching my photos with the photos of other people from Google!!! 

*throws fists in the air*

It's CITY WINE SHOP!

The main room in front was full so we were brought to a room at the back which had a LONG and LARGE table for everyone to share.

 Map of Italy hanging on the wall.

 Map of Portugal and Spain.

Our wines!

 Since we ordered a sweet dessert, I wanted something that's not too sweet and the sommelier got me a wine that's just right.

PS: I can't help but admit that I don't even remember which glass of wine belonged to me. LOL

And this my friend, is the best PEAR CRUMBLE ever!!

Underneath those crunchy crumbs, you get sweet and soft pears!

Heaven in our mouths!

T___T

What a great way to end our foodie day! Love all the food, coffee and dessert! I must force myself to bring the camera out with me on every single holiday now! The photos taken using my mobile phones were so unacceptable! lol 

Once again, THANK YOU so much Karen!! :D

Information on the cafes/restaurants/pubs in this post below this.

Hardware Societe

Address: 120 Hardware Street, 3000 Melbourne, VIC.

Phone Number: (03) 9078 5992

Follow them on Twitter here. (You'll get the latest updates including their new menu and photos of FOOD!)

Facebook here.

Urbanspoon here.

Creperie Le Triskell

Address: 32 Hardware Lane, 3000 Melbourne, VIC.

Facebook here.

Urbanspoon here.

La Belle Miete

Address: 30 Hardware Lane, Melbourne, VIC.

Facebook page here.

Urbanspoon here.

Manchester Press

Address: 8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne, VIC.

Phone Number: +61 3 9600 4054

Facebook page here.

Urbanspoon here. (You HAVE TO check this out! Especially the photos there!)

Appetizer Kubklam

Address: 285 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC.

Phone Number: (03) 9663 6481 / 9650 8838

Website here. (Check their full menu here!)

Facebook page here.

Urbanspoon here.

City Wine Shop

Address: 159 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC.

Phone Number: (03) 9654 5377

Website here.

Facebook page here.

Urbanspoon here.

Hey guys! How are you?

I feel bad for not updating much! I've been busy with work, catching up with friends, reading (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert is a good read!) and basically, life! I finally have some free time today so here we go with the continuation of my Melbourne Trip!

Earlier entries:

Day 1 - Arrival & Monga Dessert Lounge here.

Day 2 - Chez Dre, Bank Street Market, Hopetoun Tea Rooms & High Tech Burrito here.

Day 3, Part 1 - Mornington Peninsula - Beach Huts here.

Day 3, Part 2 - Sunnyridge Strawberry Farm here.

Day 3, Part 3 - Arthurs Seat, Murrays lookout &  Waterfront here.

Day 3, Part 4 - Sandsculpting 'Toytopia', Frankston Waterfront &  Hoa Tran here.

Day 4 - Three Bags Full, South Wharf &  Donwoori Korean Restaurant here.

Melbourne (March 2012) - Day 5

On my 5th day in Melbourne, Karen had things to attend to at the church so I went to the zoo alone! YAY! I was so excited for my first trip to a zoo! I was already imagining all the cute fluffy animals!

How to go to Melbourne Zoo?

With Melbourne's convenient public transportation, it's really easy!

The method that I used was: Take the train(Upfield) from Flinders Street Station to Royal Park.

Please scroll down until the bottom for a few photos of food if photos of cute animals and kids don't interest you.

:)

With my map and camera, I went on my own little adventure! Did not take photos of ALL the animals cause some of them were either too far or too difficult to capture! Ahem... the lion and the wombat!

The weather forecast predicted the day to be warm but it's ok. It's quite shady at the zoo so I only had to use my cap at some parts only.

More info can be found at their website here.

 First animal that I saw upon entrance, the peacock!

 Sun conures

The most beautiful animal in the zoo!

Snow leopard!

Really love it! Its white and beautiful mane~

Big paws and long fluffy tail~

Beautiful eyes with really cute ears~

Awwwwwww.....

 Just look at its tail!!

:D

Sadly, it's one of the endangered animals!

 Bear!

Awww...

 Saw many school kids with files going around the zoo in groups and I was curious with their activity! Heh!

If only we have a zoo for our kids to do activities like this~

Another peacock!!

 Did I mention that there were many school kids?

That's just some of them!

 Relaxing at the zoo~

 Gorilla sitting like a boss!

 Most walkways were shady like this.

 Mandrill!

 Pink and blue butt? Nice :P

Awwww cute baby!!

 Gibbon monkey staring at people in that pose for quite a long time.

Black and white colobus.

Cute toddler waving at me!

*melts*

 Koala bear!!!

XD

Just look at those fluffy ears!

 Laughing Kookaburra.

No kidding. Its name is really that!

Still so cute!

 Tapir!

 Collared peccary.

 Cute right?

 Golden pheasant?

 Pelican.

 Butterfly!

 And more butterflies!

Elephants that didn't bother to turn around :(

 Orang utan!

 Another cute toddler!

 Cute meerkats!

 A zebra.

 Giraffe!

It's really tall!

 Ostrich! hehe

 Kangaroos!

It was really hot then! They didn't even want to bat an eyelid!

 See?

But I was hoping to see those big kangaroos! Hmm... maybe some other time in another zoo hehe

 An emu!!

And so, after spending a few hours there walking leisurely while going gaga over the cute animals and kids, I took the train back to the city.

Got myself a badge as a token of remembrance. Was so tempted to get those fluffy and cute soft toys but yeah, just thinking about the limited space in my room made me put them back. LOL

It was only a little past 2 in the afternoon when I got back to the city and some of the shops were still opened! Yay! Window shopped a bit and my legs brought me to Lindt Cafe at Collins Street.

Legs, why did you bring me there?

HAHA

And so I went in and ordered a slice of cake and a glass of cold drink to kill off the heat and reward myself for walking for so many hours alone.

I couldn't decide which cake to have cause all of them looked so yummy so I told the staff that I wanted something chocolate but not too sweet. And she recommended.......

St. Moritz.

Very pricey but the taste made all the AUD worth it! It's so so sooooooooo good! Plus, the staff was really nice too! She brought me to a table right away and I was served a glass of cold water.

:)

Description taken from Lindt's website here.

How could one go to Lindt Cafe and not order chocolate drink right? And so, I had.....

Iced milk chocolate!

Mmmmm..... so chocolate and so smooth but so sweet too! My opinion is to share it with another person if you are ordering this next time.

Nice interior design, awesome cake, yummy drink surrounded by lots of chocolate~

I was grateful that I could experience that on my short trip there.

Ever since I tasted the Lindt Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls last year(Karen got some for me), I just had to get some! Smooth and creamy milk chocolate and peanut butter melting in your mouth... heaven!

XD

Enough to satisfy my cravings for a few months!

I don't get why we don't have this here when we have any other flavours! Oh wells...

Lindt Cafe

Address: 271, Collins Street, CBD, Melbourne.

Website here.

Facebook here.

Twitter here.

Lindt Cafe on Urbanspoon here.

It was still early and the city's full of people getting of from work so I walked around the city to kill some time.

Spotted this band, Our Symphonic Life, performing outside David Jones and I stood there to enjoy their music for a bit.

Not bad I'd say.

Click here for their facebook page.

Then I continued with more window shopping, or rather, absorbing the environment there. Legs brought me back to Melbourne Central Shopping Centre so I spent some money time at the Cotton On there. When I was done with it, all the other shops had closed.

T.T

Went to the food court and ordered ramen for dinner.

My charsiu ramen.

Nothing too special, just alright.

The sky started to get dark after I finished my ramen so I took the tram back to Karen's place. She's not home yet so I chatted with her house mate who's really nice! 

HI JEN! :D

Showered and checked twitter and facebook while having some snacks.

Love the strawberries and yoghurt!!

Supa Save, can we have that yoghurt please??

Banana milk!

YUMS!

Then it was more girly chats with Karen and Jen til really late!

It was a FUN day exploring Melbourne alone with nothing much in mind. Once again, THANK YOU Karen for taking me in and sorry I made you so worried when you couldn't contact me. Phone's battery was dead T.T

And that's how my 5th day in Melbourne go.

Thank you for reaching the end of this post and HAPPY WEEKEND!

:)