Bagels in Perth

I’ve been eating bagels quite often lately.  This Bagelier is an online bakery shop settled in Metropolitan Perth, which deliver freshly baked bagels and other baked sweets right to your door.

I love bagels, but I also miss Japanese style bread.  I hope someone open a Japanese bakery shop in Perth!  Japanese bread are different, and there are many many flavors.  Is there bakeries owned by Japanese bakers within Australia?  

By the way I love my Cranberry x Cream Cheese bagel at Bagelier.  Green Tea flavors are also nice.  After toasting they are nicely crusty and I can enjoy the hard crust as I like.  Personally I love very crusty bread, or very chewy bread.  The bagels from bagelier are nicely chewy and reasonably hard when you heat up.  If you have a small oven toaster it makes them nicely crunchy and chewy!  You can buy them in bulk and keep in the freezer, in this way you can enjoy a bagel anytime

Chocolate Cake

Crunchy roasted nuts are a great accent on this mild creamy chocolate cake.

<Chocolate Cake>

-sponge-

• 2 Eggs
• 60g Granulated Sugar
• 50g Plain Flour
• 10g Cocoa Powder
• 20g Unsalted Butter (melted)

-ganache-

• 100g Dark Chocolate
• 100g Fresh Cream
• Orange Liqueur (eg: Cointreau)

-syrup-

• 1 tsp Granulated Sugar
• 2/1 cup water

-garnish-

• Roasted nuts (eg: peanuts, almond etc)

* Heat up oven to 170

* Line up a cake tin (16cm)

1. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl.  Over warm water bath, whip the egg  till ribbon stage.
2. Fold in shifted flour and cocoa powder.  Add melted butter, and fold in.  (don’t over mix)
3. Pour into lined tin and bake in the oven for 25min or till the sponge is cooked.  Let it cool down.
4. Boil water with sugar in a small pan till sugar dissolves.  Let it cool down.
5. Break down dark chocolate and place in a clean bowl.  Boil cream, and add into the chocolate.  Mix till smooth.
6. Halve the cooled sponge and brush syrup on the surface of each slices.  Spread ganache on one slice (syrup side) and place another slice on top.  Spread ganashe on the surface and side.
7. Decorate the side of cake with crushed roasted nuts.  Garnish with ganache, nuts and melted white chocolate.

Modern Japanese Beauty Salon

I noticed my skin and hair condition got really bad since I came to Australia.  I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one who feels that way.  The biggest cause of this, I believe, is the air.  The air here is really really dry!  My eyes need eye drops every half an hour, and my skin looks like it has scales on it.  That’s way I can’t neglect to use body lotion after shower.  I think UV and water are also the causes.  Water here is hard, and water in Japan is soft.  I don’t know what difference it causes to our body but I definitely feel my hair is softer and moist in Japan.  Here, even though I use same shampoo from Japan I feel my hair is very dry.  Well, so I have to put a little more effort to maintain my body in Perth.

Actually I seldom go to a beauty salon to get massage or some kinds of treatment.  It doesn’t mean I don’t like it, it’s just because I don’t wanna spend lots of money on myself.  I’m pretty sure lots of girls like getting massage and beauty treatments.  Don’t you?  I am too.  So when I feel “oh my body really really needs some help…” I go out to get my body rescued.

This beauty salon MC Beauty is located in Northbridge, and the owner Mrs Mako is a professional beauty practitioner.  All the staff there are highly skilled Japanese beauticians and some of their machines are directly brought from Japan.  That’s why I only go to this place in Perth.  I feel safe!

I’ve been there few times for IPL, but today I experienced their special facial treatment.  It was my first time to get facial treatment in my life!

Oh my gosh… it was soooo nice.  I almost fell asleep.  Seriously!  This special facial treatment has 14 steps, and they massage my decollete, shoulders, neck and legs/arms too.  These steps include deep-cleansing, peeling, ion innovation, buble cleansing, mask, spinal electric massage etc…

The skin care they use is 100% organic naturally produced in Australia, (a brand called Janesce) and I loved the scent of rose.  They said to me that rose extract actually helps reviving body tissue too.  They of course have other than rose if you don’t like the rose scent.

Now my skin looks very different.  Smooth and moist.  After the session they said that my body age accorning to the spinal electric thing is 42!  Oh no…  They taught me some strech and massage techniques so that I can do it at home.  It’s nice that I can see the analysis of my skin level and body condition in a graph.  The staff are very friendly yet professional, that’s the reason why I wanna come back here in the future.

Beauty…

About 4 months ago I found this web-blog by a Japanese woman who lives in UK.  Apparently she is a pro photographer and she shows stunning photos in the website.

I don’t know much about photos (like “what is a good photo” “how to take photo”), but these pictures blew me away!  So beautiful.

Her photos in Kyoto have captured the natural beauty that you can experience in ordinary days.  Simply stunning.  I could almost feel the air in these photos.

I actually used these photose to show in-laws that what Japan is like.  We are going there in September!  Can’t wait!

Photos in Kyoto→nordljus

Easter Holiday

It’s a hot day!  I went to Freo this morning.  Some places were closed, but cafes and some shops were opened.  There were so many people there, wondering around the city, having picnic at a park, or walking near the shore.  I had an iced moccha at Fusion Cafe on South Tce, then headed to Fremantle harbour to wonder around.

After I came home I cut up the chocolate cake I made last night.  Easter eggs, chocolate, cakes…  I hope my weight stays still during this holiday :p

Happy Easter Holiday to everyone!