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!)

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!