+39

+39
362 Little Bourke St, Melbourne
Phone 03 9642 0440


What they said on their wall is true, Life is too short to be eating average pizza, so I came to +39 :)

I know this one from Tummyrumbles (again, LOL) and within a week, I think I went there for more than 5 times, for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Post-dinner dessert.

This one is taking on my lunch. It is pumpkin and stringbean pizza. Quite good, actually. But my favorite one here is the one on my sister's blog http://nutmegscafe.blogspot.com/2009/04/39-part-ii.html it is lobster and cavier pizza...this is really, really good.

For dessert, I tried Pannacotta, Tiramisu, Nutella and Strawberries Pizza (complimentary from Carlos, thanks ^^) and Ricotta cheese one.

This is Pannacotta, we can choose to have the berries topping or chocolate topping, both are great. I tried it for several times and each time it tasted different. My favorite one is strawberries with lemon peel with the pannacotta without bitter red liquor (I can't remember the liquor name but that one is sooooo bitter).

This is Tiramisu. The mascapone is soooo good, so creamy. The first time I tried I think it contained not enough coffee but it is good accompany with my cappuchino. The next time I tried is perfect...more coffee inside with the creamy mascapone :)

This is the complimentary Nutella and Strawberries Pizza after I told Carlos that I came to his shop 4 times during Friday to Monday (and they close on Sunday), LOL. It came in hearted-shape. I saw from other tables that this one came in half-fold with Nutella and Strawberries inside. Inside the rim of this pizza is ricotta chesse. I think it's quite good but that day we are too full.

This is the ricotta cheese dessert. Honestly, I preferred Pannacotta and Tiramisu. This one is so good with one of the dessert liquor (at first we think it was too thick and the chef heard that so he explained to us and gave us some liquor to prove and it's true).

I also have espresso chocolate tart here. Quite tasty and thick. But it is so good with latte or cappuchino. (my method to eat this is putting milk frosting on top of the tart, yummy!!!)

Ok, the real reason for me to keep coming here is coffee...as they are italian, you can guess that they are crazy about coffee...and trust my, their coffee is sooo good. The milk frosting is so thick and creamy (ok, and the price is good, 3AUD for everything).

Another style of Cappuchino...

This is the one for breakfast. Bowl of caffe latte with ladyfinger...so good as always

Vue de Monde

Vue de Monde
430 Little Collins Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia
Tel: +61 3 9691 3888
Fax: +61 3 9600 4600
Website: http://www.vuedemonde.com.au

This is my second time that I visited Vue de Monde. My first time is such amazing, so I totally forgot to take pictures of food :(

Before the meal, they asked us if we have any like-dislike...we just told them that for main course, we didn't want it to be chicken or pork, that's all. (just because I would like to taste the meat or fish as the main course)

Butter, pepper,and salt.

Petit Clair-de-Lune oyster served with seaweed consummé, caviar and grapefruit air. Even I am not oyster big fan...this is still amazing for me...so refreshing and preparing me for the meal.

Gnocchi aux Truffles d'Alba: Liquid Cep gnocchi with mushrooms, tarragon emulsion.

It's amazing that when you bited gnocchi, it transformed from gnocchi to liquid...quite impress...but the taste is not as my like.

Pain Perdu et Foie Gras: French toast, green apple puree, and foie gras flavoured with eight spices and Jamon Iberico Gran Reserva

This is my most favorite dish. All are great. French toast seems to be not hard to make...but this is the perfect french toast...the crispy and everything is just perfect. Foie gras is amazing as it should be. and everything in this dish is the perfect combination.

Filet de Merlan: King George whiting, seared with a sourdough skin, shimeji mushrooms, white asparagus and reserved lemon noodle.

As it came after the foie gras dish, it didn't impress me as it should be. But this is also good because of the combination of everything is good. The most i like in this dish is reserved lemon noodle...quite interesting.

Assiette de Veau: Veal assiette with black bean sauce and a bread and almond puree.

It's good, according to Vue de Monde standard...but the almond puree was not the good combination in this dish for me.

Frozen juice to clear the palate.

Salade des Fruits: Fruit Salad

This is the great dish to switch to dessert...the frozen kiwi lollipop is amazing :)

Biscuit au Chocolat: Michel Bras' classic self-saucing Valrhona chocolate biscuit with mocha sauce, coffee and milk powder and ice double cream.

This warm dessert is great...I love it. Normally I love self-saucing chocolate cake, so it's quite predictable that I would love this one.

Petit-four: from left to right..salt caramel truffle, pine apple lollipop coated with mint jelly, passion fruit pavlova, carrot nougat, and blood orange jelly.

My tea. I can't remember the name of my tea, it is lemongrass tea with something :)

I can't write much about tasting note as everything as I had this one since december 2008 and writing this blog on february 2009. and another reason is how can you descripe the delicious and most amazing restaurant as Vue de Monde...it's quite the experience that everyone should have once in a lifetime :)

Sunny Ridge Strawberry

Sunny Ridge Strawberry
http://www.sunnyridge.com.au/

I'm not sure if I can call Sunny Ridge's strawberries the best strawberries I ever taste or not. (because actually Japanese strawberries are also great, LOL) but this must be the best strawberries in Victoria as my friend told me on the first time I saw Sunny Ridge Strawberries at Slow Food Melbourne Farmers' Market at Collingwood.

This is the first grade strawberries I bought from farmers' market. All of them look like strawberries in advertisement, all red, juicy, and sweet. One of my friends asked me why I don't do something to them, such as coated them with chocolate...I told him that these strawberries are too good. The best way to do with them is eating them fresh like this and you can get the real taste :)

I also bought raspberry jam. (ok, I know that you are doubt why I did not buy the strawberry one. I have to tell you that it's the hard decision, both of them look great.) The taste is also good...with nice toast, yummy :)

And another interest thing is their wine. I bought the strawberry sparkling wine...as I am not the wine expert, I found that it's good but it depends on the likeness of each person as my sister does not like it that much.

They don't have only strawberries, but also have raspberries, blueberries and cherries. Besides visiting their farm, you can also get their fruits and other products (except ice-cream) from farmers' market. Please check more information at their website.

On December 2008, I even went to their farm, haha, as I can't stand just buy them from farmers' market without pick them up by myself...the trip was soooo good. Strawberries were amazing as always. Another thing that you have to taste here is the award-wining strawberry ice-cream....soooo good. but i forgot to take a picture of it.


Be happy with strawberries!!!

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!)

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 :)