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.

Hikone Castle Road

These are the photos I took while I was in Japan.  (I think it’s last year)

This city is Hikone, just next to my city in Shiga.  There are many historical buildings remain across Japan and you will find many temples and other buildings everywhere.  Hikone is one of the city which tries to remain the historical parts.

There is a road called “castle road” near the Hikone Castle, and all the buildings, including police station, and lights around the road are designed “old-looking”.  White wall and black roof.  Very famous tourist attraction place.

There are many shops including restaurants (where you can enjoy Ohmi wagu beef and other Shiga food), souvenir shops, cafes, and art shops on the Castle Road.  I heard that there is a new shop opened just recently – called “Mask Elementary School”.

What interests me is that the second floor of this shop is a cafe where they serve kyushoku-like food.  (I wrote about kyushoku here)  I love this type of places (>v<)!

The bread (above photo) is age-kinako-pan.  It’s a deep-fried bun, coated with kinako (sweet soy powder).  I know how high calorie it is, but It was my favorite kyushoku item.  They seem to have different coatings (including maccha and cocoa), and there are menu for age-kinako-pan parfait for 350 yen.  I will definitely try this place out on my next homecoming!

My Favorite Shops in Perth

Remedy

Remedy has been one of my favorite shops since it opened.  Few steps away from the busy Fremantle cappuccino street, this store is secretary but very popular among those people who find joy in collecting nice homeware, kids toys, accessories and gifts.

95 high street  fremantle wa 6160 … 08 94317080

131 oxford street leederville wa 6007 … 08 94448818 Read the rest of this entry »

Utopia Bakery in Perth

Utopia bakery has been one of the popular Chinese bread shop, and now there are 5 shops across Perth.  I’m sure many people have tasted their bubble tea and bread, as well as some unique vegetarian dishes.  Myaree shop and Square shop have karaoke rooms and you can order dishes to your room.  Currently they are doing Ladies Day on Tuesday and Mens Day on Wednesday, which you can get 50% on your karaoke fee.

• Myaree … 50 Hulme Court, Myaree 6154 (08) 9330 1688
• Barrack … 73 Barrack St, Perth 6000 (08) 9325 1990
• Square … Shop14/109 James St, Northbridge 6003 (08) 9227 8588
• Victoria Park … 859 Albany Hwy, Victoria Park 6100 (08) 9362 3888
• Garden City … Near Dreamy Donut in Garden City Shopping Centre

Ceedee Soaps

There’re many web companies providing the service where you can create your own websites, and when I was browsing yola I came across this handmade soap bar website Ceedee Soaps.

 The story is, the owner of this natural, non chemical handmade soap business is a 11-year-old girl, Clair.  This industrious girl was interested in online-selling business and built this website with the help of her father.  Together, they have became a team of hand making natural soaps at home.

Clair didn’t want to use any chemical and artificial things in the soaps from the beginning, and their soaps are made by all natural ingredients.  The soaps are avaliable in a variety of scents, and I love the natural looking website and packaging.  Each soap is very reasonably priced ($4.00 each free shipping in US).

I wish this young business much continued success, and can’t wait to see what Clair’s next adventure would be