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March 26, 2017August 30, 2023

Best Western Atlantis Hotel, Melbourne

We just had a short weekend getaway to Melbourne at end of February. And for this trip we stayed at two hotels, the first leg at Best Western Atlantis which location is very close to Southern Cross Station. In fact, on of the reason we chose this was for its location – thinking it would be so convenience to get to train station and still in the CBD.

This time we flew to Avalon Airport and caught the Skybus shuttle back to Southern Cross Station. That was our first time flying to Avalon Airport and it was not bad at all. Yes, it is far from CBD but the shuttle bus helps and was not that expensive either. But if you travelling in group of 4 or 5 people, maybe get a hired car would come cheaper 😛

Anyway, the trip from airport to CBD was fine – as I remembered the only part where we got stuck in traffic was when it got closer to CBD. The drive took about 50 minutes from airport to Southern Cross station. From there it was an easy five minutes walk to the hotel. We got to the hotel around 11.20 am and was surprised that the room was all ready.

We were at room 1528, floor 15th – a City View room. The room is pretty basic but sufficient. There is a window overlooking the street and buildings around back of the hotel towards CBD. A double size bed that has past its prime time, couple of fluffy pillows, a desk and an old looking couch. As for the bathroom, I am happy that it is clean and everything worked fine. Note that they only provided a tube of shampoo, a tube of conditioner and two standard hotel-sized round soaps. Since we brought our own toiletries, I don’t have much to say about those provided ones.

Rooms are cleaned every day before lunch (I think), it has always been done by the time we came back after lunch. Air conditioner worked well. Once it reaches the set temperature, it will turn off itself then on again when it is couple degrees above the set temperature. This might be a problem with light sleepers and it makes little noise when turning on.

The hotel offers paid buffet breakfast that we didn’t try. But appeared fairly busy every morning when we walked past the breakfast are. While we were there, they didn’t have free wifi in the room. However, prepaid wifi is available by contacting the front desk – from memory it costs about $30 per day.

To summarise, this hotel is good value for the price and location being close to Southern Cross station and many tram stops. As for comfort, we’d rate it average – nothing wow, but not too bad either. After all, it costs only around AUD 100 per night, so do adjust your expectation 🙂

(Best Western) Atlantis Hotel

300 Spencer St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9600 2900

atlantishotel.com.au

March 12, 2017

Blogger Recognition Award

I am truly grateful to be nominated by this super talented and delightful blogger, Michelle Novak of Inspired by Venice, for a Blogger Recognition Award. Thank you so much! Do head to her blog page for awesome healthy recipes and lovely pictures of Tiddo!

And here are Blogger Recognition rules:

Write a post to show your award.
Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you and share the link to their blog.
Give a brief story of how your blog got started.
Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
Nominate 15 bloggers of your choice for the award.
Comment on each blog to let them know that you’ve nominated them and provide a link to your post.

How my blog started?

I started this blog a little over a year ago. There were several factors that drove me to started this blog. I like reading other people blogs about cooking or baking and mainly travel stories. Being lazy, I used to bookmark recipe posts I wished to make one day – but over the time those links changed and I lost a lot of those bookmarks and never could find them again 🙁 Then one day, it just came to me why not I start my own blog – where I can actually post recipes that I have tried? I can share with my readers any tips I have pick up here and there and might be a benefit for others.

As for travel, as much as I love doing that, unfortunately we cannot afford doing it more often. What I love about travelling is mainly trying the local cuisines (as you can probably tell by now how much we love food hehehe). I would share our journeys along with how we felt about it.

Every now and then you will also see my posts on soap making or any odd simple craft projects or gardening attempts (or might I say, fails :P)

Two pieces of advice to new bloggers:

I definitely no expert and still learning to be better at this and here are my two cents. A super long post often confuses me, especially if it’s all writings. It is better to have few pictures and try not to write too long in a single post.

Another tip is that do blogging because you enjoy doing it. Remember that whilst it’s an online world where you barely know your fellow bloggers in person; it is always good to be kind and respective to others 🙂

And here are my nominations for the Blogger Recognition Award (in no particular order):

I thank you fellow bloggers for inspiring me 🙂

February 15, 2017

Mango Sago

As the temperature rose to extreme heat (according to the news lady) during last weekend and also abundance of mangoes, why not make some mango desserts right? The first time we had mango sago was at this one yum cha restaurant at Piccadilly Centre, Sydney. I don’t think have seen the same dessert on offer in any other yum cha restaurants we have been to before, where they usually only have mango pudding and mango pancakes.

Googled mango sago recipe and resulted in many variances, but this is the one I attempted to make.

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized mangoes
1/4 cup mangoes chopped
1/3 cup sago pearls
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup milk, boiled and cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup condensed milk

Directions:

Soak sago in water and rinse off the excess starch. Then boil water in a pot and add the sago, cook until the sago turn transparent and soft. Keep mixing them while cooking to make sure none is stuck at the bottom of you pot.

Once cooked, drain and wash under running water; then drain well and set aside to cool.

In a blender, mix the mango puree and half of the milk and sugar until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl, add in the rest of the milk and mix well.

Give it a taste test while to measure how much condensed milk you will need. Depends on how sweet your mangoes are, you may need more or less of the condensed milk.

Then add in the sago, mix until everything is combined and smooth.

Refrigerate at least one hour before serving, garnish with chopped mangoes and enjoy the sweet summery dessert!

Cooked sago pearls

I served the mango sago with a little bit more milk to tone down the sweetness 🙂

Any mangoes with less fibers would be prefect for this dessert.
Obviously, the measurement are just a guide, so please adjust level of sweetness according to your liking.
Also, if you prefer thicker consistency, you may add more sago pearls; likewise more milk if you prefer it runnier. As it chills in the fridge, it will thicken up a little bit.
For a creamier and richer taste, you might want to substitute half or all of the milk to evaporated milk.
Add some pomelo or grapefruit chunks for an even more refreshing dessert and cut through the sweetness. Notice that grapefruit will usually hint of bitterness which isn’t the case with pomelo.

February 10, 2017

Manmaruya, Ashfield

We still experience the worst of summer here in Sydney, where temperature reached up to 43 degrees in the west. Last weekend was no exception, it was really hot while we were out here and there mostly all day on Saturday. We spent first half of Saturday looking at property inspections around Ashfield and decided we should grab quick lunch in the area. After all there are plenty of choices to choose from at Ashfield, but we ended up at Manmaruya. Also on the note of Sydney heat, I think I will not do any more baking or much cooking indeed until it is cooler again 😛 So stay tune for more recipe posts probably in a little while…

We got to the restaurant around quarter past twelve and there were still plenty tables available. We ordered the special lunch bento boxes whereas hubby tried their cold ramen.

Those lunch bento boxes are really good value for your money no doubt, huge portion of rice and generous amount of delicious meat with salad and some small side items. As for the cold ramen, it really came like the normal ramen but with cold broth. The broth is so refreshing, it is a little bit tangy but very tasty, just perfect for a hot day. By the way, you can always upgrade your ramen portion to a bigger size if you feel super hungry 😀

Manmaruya Japanese Noodle Bar

217 Liverpool Rd., Ashfield NSW 2131

Phone: (02) 9799 6889

manmaruya.com.au

February 5, 2017

Jongga Jip Korean BBQ, Eastwood

Finally we got to try Jongga Jip in Eastwood after passing it with big crowds in front of the restaurant so many times. Chinese New Year celebration came with excuse to eat out and after all the considerations, we decided to go to this place for its numerous good reviews. I was hoping it would be a nice (read: not so hot) day, but as it turned out to be over 30 degrees in the afternoon – nevertheless still we had good time and great meal. And what is more exciting than having Korean BBQ is those side dishes, right? 🙂

We got there at 6 pm and there were still plenty of tables available. But since it was our first time and it was a weekend night, so we reserved beforehand just to be safe. We were given table at the corner, perfect! Menus were distributed promptly and so were water. We might have over ordered this time as the platters came and there was just not enough spaces on the table. But to be fair, those 12 side dishes already took up so much space on the table anyway… So what we did was hit those side dishes first and let the waiter took them away to clear some space on the table for our order.

Here are what we had there:

On the left are Marinated Pork and Ox Tongue;
On the right are all the side dishes

Left: Assorted BBQ Meat Platter; Right: Seafood Pancake (Medium); Top Right Corner: Jap Chae

Mostly everything were delicious: the ox tongue were thin and tender. So are the marinated pork, very tasty and nice cut hence not stringy. Seafood pancake was huge serving for a medium size and has generous amount of seafood in it. Unfortunately it felt a little floury, but hubby loves it. Jap chae was really delicious and also came in massive serving. I would suggest to rethink before ordering if you are sharing between two people only.

The meat platter was a little disappointing, mainly because the boneless beef ribs were chewy. But aside of that, everything else on that platter was lovely. If we are coming back again, we probably will not order the platter, but rather get the individual plate of the nice cuts we had tasted so far.

Overall we are happy diners at Jongga Jip and would love to come back. Although with so many choices available in that area, it may be a long time until we are back here again 🙂

Jongga Jip Korean BBQ

87 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW 2122

Phone: (02) 9858 5160

Open hours: 10 am – 11 pm