Baking, Window Shopping, and Reading

It was another relaxing weekend for me.  The Saturday was hot, I didn’t need to wear a jacket and I saw many people enjoying the marine sports at the Swan River from freeway.

I had many banana left which were starting to have black spots, so I used them all up to bake banana bread.  It turned out to be good, I could smell the delicious cinnamon from the oven while baking.

Just after I took it out from the oven, one of my sister-in-low and her husband visited our house.  They just came back from Dubai and gave me this souvenir from Daiso which I’ve asked them to buy for me.

Wood clips.  I actually wanted a simple one (like the one Kiki-K sells), but they said that’s all they could find at Daiso.  

The left wooden clip got a motif of chef, because they know I like cooking  and, I can probably take of the rings from the wooden clips (centre on the photo) to use for papers and notebooks.

I gave them a half of the banana bread as a “thank you”, and I brought another half to another sister-in-low.  Last week she gave us tuna bake for dinner (she said she cooked too much) and it was delicious.  This banana cake was a “thank you” for the tuna bake.

Then, we headed to Subiaco.  There wasn’t anything particularly we wanted to do in Subi, but just wanted to walk around and do window-shopping.

We walked into Henry Hiccup – a toy shops for kids.  We loved the image of the shop and the product range.  

We sat down at Oriel cafe to have a cup of drink.

It was a pretty windy day, so we sat down on a couch inside.  He ordered flat white, I had fresh OJ, and a pecan tartlet to share.

At the cafe we talked about many things – this is one of the reason why we go out for a cup of coffee sometimes.  We can talk more things outside compared to when we stay at home.

After the pit-stop, we went to Borders to get inspiration from the books, and stayed there until late.   In the end of the day I was tired, but it was a good day.

The Imp

My friend invited me for a late lunch at The Imp in East Victoria Park.  It was my first time to have a meal at this cafe, and the cafe was very busy as I expected.

There’re people queueing waiting to order for take away coffee.  This cafe only has a few tables because of the size of the building…  but we were lucky enough to get this counter seats for three of us.  The chair was actually difficult to sit and eat the food, as all of us are pretty short (I’m 155cm, other friends are 151cm and 158cm) and the stalls were quite high: but we managed it.

The staff are friendly, and the service was fast.  I also like the look of the exposed brick wall and the polished concrete counter.  It has the retro-looking.  It must feel nice staying here sipping hot coffee in winter.

We ordered smoked salmon baguette and feta baguette from the lunch menu, and croquette from the tapas menu.

The smoked salmon baguette contained cream cheese, baby spinach, red onion and capers.

The feta baguette came with roasted red capsicum, baby spinach and drizzled with balsamic glaze.  Both baguettes came with homemade tomato chutney.

I loved the baguette.  It was like short flute baguette, crusty but not too hard, and chewy!  The tomato chutney was tasty too.

I wanted to have another cup of coffee, but my friends kept talking and talking..  It was around 4 pm when we left the cafe.  … I thought the staff were little annoyed by us (as we stayed long without ordering another cups) but they were smiling.

It was a good afternoon

MillPoint Caffe Bookshop

It was lazy afternoon for me…  I had to wake up very early to do some work.  Around noon I thought I should take a little nap, but didn’t feel like going back to bed.  Then I decided to surf the web for a bit, and I lost track of time!  When I shut the computer it was already around 3pm.

I had headache, but thought I should get out of the house.  Because it was Sunday I didn’t quite know where to go.  I was driving around Swan River, then popped into this book cafe in South Perth.

I knew about this cafe from before but it was my first time to go inside.  Once I stepped in, I realised it was an actual book shop where you can buy books.  I thought it was like a cafe where you share the books with other customers and read while sipping on coffee.  They had many kids books, novels and some other types.  I liked all the books they sell.

There’re a few tables near the book shelves, but all the seats were taken by customers.  I walked towards the back, and I found a cafe counter and tables in the terrace.

I felt like something warm, so I ordered flat white.  My husband ordered latte, and one apple & blueberry crumble to share.

We sat on a sofa, then realised we couldn’t take the book to read into the terrace.  We read the paper in stead, and shortly a waitstaff came to us with our order.  All the staff were very friendly!  And, the coffee was just how I wanted… perfect

We could totally relax there.  I want to go back to this place, definitely.

<MillPoint Caffe Bookshop>

Burger Cafes

I like the idea of cafes and restaurants specialising in one type of food.  Examples are San Churro, The Raw Kitchen, Pancakes and Grill and Egg O Mania Omeleteers… serving only specialised items evokes curiosity and make people want to visit the places.  If I go somewhere for a holiday and there are two cafes near the hotel, one serves typical cafe menus including coffees, ready-made cakes and some light foods, and another specialise in homemade waffles and a few choices of drink menus, I would chose the second one.

Since few weeks ago I’ve been having a craving for a burger.  Not a sandwich, a burger!  I’ve been to few burger cafes around Perth and want to write about these places here.

Gourmet on Wray

Gourmet on Wray is a burger cafe located in Fremantle.  A little walk away from the heart of Fremantle city, this place offer relaxing atmosphere and friendly service.  I had vege lurve, and husband ordered simple simon.

Each burgers came with salad and garnished with rosemary, and soft sourdough buns were lightly grilled. Vege lurve is a burger with seasonal veggie patty with sauteed mushroom, avocado and chilli jam.  I must say, I really loved it.

Thanks to the chilli jam, this burger is quite spicy.  In contrast, the veggie patty was little sweet (mushed pumpkin or sweet potato was a part of the ingredient, I believe) and the spiciness and the sweetness was a great match.  Sauteed mushroom was perfectly seasoned and cooked, and, a chunky layer of avocado!

Simple simon is a burger with beef patty, grilled onion, tomato relish and lettuce.  It was nice too, but I preferred Vege lurve to this.

The another good part is the price. All the menus are around $10.00 ~ $14.00.  Very reasonable, and right portion size.   :D

They also serve wraps and snacks, and of course coffee menus.  I will try the chicken burger next time.

(20 Wray Ave, Fremantle)

Jus Burgers

Jus Burgers can be found at Leederville and Subiaco.  This place is always packed with people, and their burgers are simply delicious!

At this gourmet burger bar, they use meat from local supplier in WA, Turkish bread from Turkish bakery in Vic Park, and all other ingredients are also purchased locally.  I actually prefer the bun here to Gourmet on Wray.  This Turkish burger is lightly grilled, and then stacked with juicy patty and salad.  I like the presentation : steak knifes stabbed into the burgers.

I had a cheese burger.  ….it was huge!  You have to be quite hungry if you are going to this place, I think.

The meat tasted delicious, and I loved the bread.  I thought guys would love the burgers here.  Big portion, thick patty, and tasty sauce.  The sauce was bit garlicky to me, but I ate up all.

You can read about the owner Justin Bell here.  It’s interesting to know what he did in his life before opening this burger bar in Perth.

Fab Burgers

Same as Jus Burger, Fab Burgers offer burgers with ingredients that are mainly locally produced.  Wanneroo Burger (minced WA kangaroo steak with salad and relish) and Barra Burger (WA saltwater barramundi with salad and relish) are the examples.  There are two Fab Burgers restaurant: Subiaco and Hillarys, and I went to Subiaco this time.

We ordered a Chicken Burger with Brie and Cranberries, and a Wirrapanda Burger.  Wirrapanda Burger contains 100% Butterfield Beef patty, smokey barbecue sauce & salad.

I really loved the combination of chicken breast, brie cheese and juicy cranberries!  This burger also contained semi-dried tomato as well.  It was good.

The bun for burgers are like focaccia bread (at a glance it looked like a normal bun) and it was tasty.  The burgers were served on the plates with wooden skewers stabbed.  Presentation-wise, it didn’t look great compared with other two shops.

I don’t know which burger cafe I liked the best, but if someone asks me where to go, I would recommend Gourmet on Wray or Jus Burgers.

Cozy Afternoon

Although the mornings and nights get really cold, the daytime is still pretty warm and I like hanging around at a cafe and having a little time for myself.

As I sat down at Fiorentina in Fremantle and ordered a glass of latte, I started to hear some Italian people talking.  Then  I remembered my friend’s blog writing about her trip to Europe last month.  She showed some photos of cafes there, and pastries and tartlets in a showcase looked so delicious.  I liked the atmosphere of those photos.

I like this cafe in Fremantle, although the sweets here are little too sweet to my taste, I enjoy the atmosphere.  I noticed their kitchen has been changed from my last visit.  There’re more staff working in the kitchen too.  I guess their business is well.

The other day I had lunch with friends at Vinh Hong in Northbridge. I was curious what’s Vietnamese coffee is, so I ordered one Vietnamese white coffee.

It was drip brew coffee mixed with condensed milk…  The taste was just like normal coffee with condensed milk.  I thought it has different aroma or some spiced added :p  Anyway, it was just as nice.

I didn’t like this Beef Brisket Noodle when I just came to Perth, but since sometime I realised how much I like beef.  I like the ethnic flavor of the soup and tender bits of beef.  It warms up chilled body

By the way, I baked souffle cheese cake that I was talking at here.

It is very sponge-like, and very fluffy and soft.  Should I call it “cheese sponge” ?