Little Cupcakes

Little Cupcakes
Shop 7 Degraves Street Melbourne 3000
Phone 03 9077 0413
http://www.littlecupcakes.com.au

If you come to Melbourne, another lane that you cannot miss if you love cafe (like me!!!) is Degraves Lane.
Degraves is the lane between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, and between Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street.

I know this cute little shop from my friend's review. The cupcakes here are so cute!

The shop is not so big. It makes me feel like it is the little shop in the fairy tales, lol.

As I cannot decide of what flavor I would get, I ordered two!!! (wait...this is my lunch, haha) One is vanilla and another one is coffee (4AUD each) with latte.

They are so cute and also tasted good. Normally, I found that cupcakes are cute but the taste are not so good. The sweetness of the topping is a good accompany with my non-sugar latte.

The funny thing here is that I am the only person who sat outside the shop on that day and after girls (most of them!) saw me with my cupcakes, they scream out "cupcakes!" and ran into the shop to get one, haha. Every girls can't stand for a cute cupcakes!!!



add more

As I visited this shop again around Christmas...I would like to add more cute photos :)

In this picture is raspberry tea with Vanilla, Strawberry, Coffee, and Lemon cupcakes...my favorite here is Lemon..but all are great.

This is the take-away cupcakes for my friend's party. All are fruitcake cupcakes (special for Christmas). So cute!!!

Animal Orchestra

Animal Orchestra
163 Grattan St,
Carlton 3053 VIC
Phone: (03) 9349 4944


As I am studying at Melbourne Uni, this cafe was spotted from my first month here because it is opposite to my uni.

I visited this cafe on friday morning, for a good start of the Halloween's day.

On my table, there is a cute thing....sugar container!

I ordered chicken panini with tasty cheese and herb mayo (can't remember the exact name) and English Breakfast tea.
My tea came first with hot water and milk.

They use tea leaves...not tea bag. The taste is just normal.

Then, my panini came. I took this photo via a mirror near my table to make it more interesting.

zoom in...sorry for the bad quality of this picture.

Panini is good...well toasted and crispy. The best part of this panini is mayo as I am a herb-lover. I can't remember what herbs they put in this. I think thymes and another one...accompanies with chicken and cheese...great choice.


For more information, you can visit http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/animal_orchestra/ or for Melbourne Uni students, just drop in and enjoy!

Crêperie le Triskel 3 (croissant and pain au chocolat)

Crêperie le Triskel
32 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
Tel o4 6640 6404

I saw that Crêperie le Triskel is now making croissant and pain au chocolat on my last visit. From my experience here, I believe that their stuffs must be really great, so I must try it.

I had croissant, tartines with marmalade and bol de cafe au lait at the shop (why I ate this much!) and bought one croissant and one pain au chocolat (3.50AUD each) for my friends.

Butter they used in these stuffs is really good. When you bite croissant, the butter's smell comes up...really really good. And they are so fluffy and being in nice layers.

If you are big fan of croissant, you should visit their shop...and trust me, you will go there more than once.....

(and another thing, if you can speak french, this is a good place for practicing too....special thanks to Michael!)

Mango Pudding

I always love mango pudding but I really hates the one made with the artificial mango essence. It tastes really bad and it makes me feel like I eat the fake mango.

One of the best mango pudding in Thailand for me is Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel's. It makes with real mango served with whipping cream in martini glass. This is the inspiration for me to make it myself...and this recipe is the recipe that I use many many times and my pudding always come out so great, like Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok Hotel's mango pudding.

Two weeks ago, I found blushed mangoes at Queen Victoria market. I tasted it and I think it can fit in my recipe. I have made mango pudding from this recipe hundreds times in Bangkok using Numdokmai mango, one of thai mangoes which taste really sweet without sour taste at all. Another diffence is yogurt in Thailand is much lighter than Australian yogurt...so, I think all ingredients in Melbourne would change the taste of my recipe...but it is good to have a try.

Ingredients

Blushed mango puree 3/4 cup - 1 cup (I used 1 and a half mangoes)
Blused mango cut into cubes as much as you want (I used half mango)
Yogurt 2 yogurt cups
Lime juice 1 tablespoon
Honey 1 tablespoon
Sugar 1/3 cup
Gelatin 1 tablespoon or 1 package
Cold water 3 tablespoons
Hot water 1/3 cup

1) Prepare Gelatin by sprink gelatin over cold water. Let stand to soften for 5 minutes. Then, add hot water and stir until it all combine.
2) Mix mango puree, yogurt, sugar, honey, and lime juice. (I always use food processor as I use it to make mango puree. So, after you make mango puree, just add other ingredients and mix until it all combine)
3) Add gelatin, mix until it all combine
4) Add mango cubes, flod just combine
5) Pour it into glasses. Then, put all glasses into refrigerator and chill until the pudding is set, around 2-3 hours or overnight.

Note: I am not sure if the recipe is translated from Thai to proper English as I haven't written the recipe in English before.

The result is very different from the one I made in Bangkok. This one is more creamy and the taste of mango is much different. Blushed mango makes the taste of honey stronger than Numdokmai mango. I think if I do it again, I will use a cup of yogurt and a cup of milk instead of 2 cups of yogurt. I want it to be lighter. In additional, I will not use honey or use only half tablespoon of honey because the honey tastes too strong. Honey shouldn't be the main taste of this recipe as the main taste must be mango's.

I gave them to my friends and they told me they are all love it. Actually, it's only me who is not happy with it as I think my previous one in Bangkok is better. Maybe I need to adapt the recipe and try it next time.

Crêperie le Triskel 2 (crêpe)

Crêperie le Triskel

32 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
Tel o4 6640 6404

Last time, I came here for breakfast and would like to try their crepe so much. Today, I went there with two friends, Oil and Card. We decided to order 2 savoury gallettes and 2 sweet crepes to share.

We ordered Le Triskel: Egg, Swiss Gruyere Cheese and Mushroom with Prosciutto (11AUD) and La Poulette: Egg with Turkey (8AUD) added spinach (1.50AUD).

This is Le Triskel: Egg, Swiss Gruyere Cheese and Mushroom with Prosciutto. We all think that this one is very salty (from Prosciutto) and too cheesy for my friends (but for me I am a cheese lover, so, it is o.k. for me). We think that this one is too tasty.

This is La Poulette: Egg with Turkey and the additional of spinach. We think this one is better than Le Triskel as the taste is more mild. The turkey is so good...soft and come in a very thin sheet.

All savoury gallettes served with salad, the dressing is olive oil and sesame. Just normal.

Overall, we think that the savoury crepes is not bad but also not that good. We found that the crepe we had at Suzuki night, Queen Victoria Market on summer is far better.

After discussed for dessert, we ordered French Chestnut Puree crepe (4AUD) and Fresh Strawberries & Chocolate crepe with Vanilla Icecream (8.50AUD) added strawberry jam (1.5AUD).

The fresh strawberries and chocolate one looked soooo good...after seeing this one, I forgot to take the picture of the chestnut puree one...lol

We are so happy with our dessert...smile! (You can see the chestnut puree crepe in this picture...the plain one)

Sweet crepes are soooooo good. I think the chestnut puree crepe is good but the fresh strawberry and chocolate one is the best crepe of this meal. Oil made a right decision to add strawberry jam to this plate...it makes the crepe moist and sweet, accompany with the bitter chocolate and fresh strawberries. I love the result! (the waitress told us that they haven't add strawberry jam to this one before.) And the crepe itself is very soft, unlike the savoury one, that one is crispy.

As I mentioned in the previous blog, I love Le Bol de Cafe au Lait (4AUD). I definitely ordered it again.

My friends were so shock that I ordered this large coffee. I told them to try as it is not strong at all. I think it is like the milk with the essence of coffee...that's the reason I love it. Normally, I am a latte lover, I love mild coffee like this.

Overall, I think this place is good at sweet crepes. The savoury one is just normal and you could find the better one somewhere but for the sweet one, it is a must to try their sweet crepes!

Café Vue Lunch Box

Café Vue
430 Little Collins Street (at the front of the Normanby Chambers Building),
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

http://www.vuedemonde.com.au/cafe-vue.aspx

I just heard the the famous Vue de Monde make an affordable lunchbox (15AUD) available at Café Vue, so I dropped in and got one.

It came in brown bag. Would you like to see what was inside?

A red box!!!

They provided menu in a box. I got

Café Vue Lunch Box Menu

Starter Babaganoush with cucumber fingers

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Soup Vichyssoise

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Savoury Café Vue club sandwich
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Sweet Blackforest gâteau

Everything is so great as expected (it's vue de monde lunchbox, how it can be not delicious!) Even it is just the normal menu that you can find it at other place, the taste is perfect. My favorite is the soup, it's creamy with flavour of various veggie.

The lunchbox menu changes regularly but typically it includes an appetiser, a sandwich, a salad, and a dessert. (I saw one lunchbox with salad from couple months ago's menu...looks really really good) So, please check the menu from its website before you go and get it :)

Crêperie le Triskel (Breakfast)

Crêperie le Triskel
32 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
Tel o4 6640 6404

I just heard about Hardware Lane from my friend. She told me that there's a new crêperie open there and it looks good. So, I google it and find out that it is a lane with lots of restaurants and cafés with jazz band on dinner time...sound great, isn't it?

I went there on Monday afternoon to see if it is o.k. to have dinner at Crêperie le Triskel. Unfortunately, this french crêpelerie closes on Sunday and Monday.

I walked around and took some pictures of the shop. From outside, it looks good. I also took the picture of menus...to make a decision what I should order...lol.

As I cannot decide which restaurant I would sit for that dinner, I decided to save the secret of Hardware Lane (the dinner night with live jazz music) for the future.

I came back in the next morning because after I read the menu, I keep dreaming about having café au lait in french style - having a bowl of cafe au lait with tartine (toast bagutte).

I sat at the front window. There are also few table outside, too if you would like to get some fresh air. But for me, the smell of fresh crêpe and coffee is more desirable.


This is the front door of the shop with the opening hours in both French and English. Remember, don't go there on Sunday and Monday, or you will end up like me! I think they forgot to change the sign on the door to be "open" but as they opened their door, it's fine...lol

This is the coffee-counter. You have choices of cold drink and tea as well.

Another side is the food counter, which that guy was making tartines.

As usual, they gave me a glass and a bottle of water while I read the menu. (Note: the red menu is for breakfast which is available from 7.oo to 11.30.

As you can guess, I ordered 'French Tartines with Bol de Café au Lait(6.50AUD) as I would like to have the experience of french breakfast.

My coffee came first. It looks nice! Not too hot and good-looking. They gave me a spoon as well, but as I remembered from my french class long time ago, I think french people sip from the bowl directly and it makes more sense for me to sip from a bowl than using spoon. So, I decided to sip from a bowl.

The coffee is as nice as its looking; nice and warm. I think it contained only 1 shot of espresso because the tasting is so milky with the strong aroma of coffee.This is a great start of the day...I wish I could have it as breakfast every morning. I understand that they use organic-fair trade coffee in their shop, maybe this is a reason that makes this coffee so good.

Then, my toast came. I chose tartines with apricot jam. It smells so good and makes me forgot to take a picture before the first bite! It's so crispy with a bit of salted butter accompanied with not too sweet apricot jam. (They gave you various choice of topping; strawberries jam, apricots jam, marmalade, and noutella, etc. I think next time I will order the marmalade one.)

Let them have a picture together! Do you agree with me that it's a nice combination...toast with café au lait!

As we are in the french atmosphere; all staffs of the shop speak french! So, I read Le Monde, french newspaper, even I am now understand french writing less than 50%...lol

I also took the photo of the shop before leaving but this picture is a bit bad. Crêperie le Triskel is on the left-hand of the picture which the man just walked pass.

Overall, I'm so happy with this shop. It's great on a good price. I wanna go back to try their crepe. I think they are good at it as their specialize on crepe. (but they make good tartines as well!)