Shortstop Coffee and Donuts, Melbourne

We were heading back to City Tempo after lunch and while staring at the Google Map for directions, Shortstop suddenly popped up. As it turned out the location is very close to City Tempo, we made a quick stop at Shortstop for their famous donuts. Learned from previous experience, when it’s location is in a small street or lane, you just have to pay extra attention for name plague. But Shortstop on other hand is very easy to locate, you could not have missed the glass wall, crowd and display of beautiful donuts.

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The cafe is quite small in size with minimalist interior and very few seating. We actually came here twice, this first time we just got the take away donuts. Then we dined in on the second time when it wasn’t as busy. When walking in, you’ll see a coffee counter and cashier counter next to it and then a glass display of each of the different flavoured donuts for the day. It was as if you are looking for antiquities display in a museum (。◕‿◕。)

These excite me much!
These excite me much!

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And of course we must try the hyped Australian Honey And Sea Salt donut because it just so different to your usual donuts. Then hubby decided he wanted to try the Maple Walnut And Brown Butter one. We were too excited and forgot to take a close up pictures of these two and only remembered after we gobbled them down ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The honey and sea salt donut is certainly unique, both in flavour combination as well as the texture. It was less sweet than the other one, being balanced by the salt flakes. But the texture is just interesting, light and airy on the inside with crisp glazed on the outside. The maple walnut and brown butter donut is totally different to the former. This is more similar to your usual kind of donut in texture but the topping is very yummy. Mind you, it is very sweet – but then again, something you’d expect from a donut, right?

On our second trip here, we tried  Boston Cream and Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake plus their coffee. They used Market Lane’s Seasonal; Blend beans. By the way, they have only whole milk for their coffees, but turned out really nice. Smooth and not too rich at all – we usually get flat while in skim because most of the time it is too creamy and rich otherwise. But the coffee here was very very good (read: memorable), even on whole milk. Both donuts are delicious and fluffy with sweet smooth cream filling inside.

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These donuts are certainly not something you’d treat yourself everyday – not just they are sweet, they are not cheap either. But, I’d love to have them every once in a while and wash it down with a cup of their coffee.

Shortstop Coffee and Donuts

12 Sutherland St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Phone: 

short-stop.com.au

Manchester Press

Once we finished with check-in at City Tempo, we decided to have a walk around the CBD area. Short walk down the Queen St and we found ourselves looking at tram stops, how easy! But since we just missed the tram, we walked along La Trobe St towards Melbourne Central which then from there we boarded the City Circle Tram 35. Love the tram ride with commentaries, seeing the hustle and bustle of crowds, parks and historical buildings.

We then got off at Federation Square and walked up north through the famous Degraves St. Not really having any concrete destination, we just walked with Google Map as our guide. As we walked close to Little Burke St I saw Manchester Press on my Google Map and decided that’s where we are going for our first meal in Melbourne.

Okay finding the place itself turned out a little challenging even with Google Map on hand. I guess it just was not something we expected, the name is not very obvious from a distance 🙂 Wrong turns in couple lanes and we finally got there!

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Manchester Press serves breakfast, salad and mainly bagels, also coffee course. We are not a big fan of bagels, I mean it’s nice but it’s not something we can’t live without. But since we are here, let be more adventurous and try something new. Also I’ve seen plenty of good reviews of this place before, meaning it must be doing it right.

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Do you notice the little birdie on the top window sill?

There were plenty of people when we got there, probably about 3/4 full. We sat in the bench overlooking the street and a friendly waitress came over with menus. We asked what would her recommendations and she pointed that the BBQ pulled pork bagels are very popular as do the grilled chorizo or eggplant for vegetarian option. Following her recommendations, we ordered the top two and flat white. And soon enough our food came:

14 Hour BBQ Pulled Pork Closed Bagel
14 Hour BBQ Pulled Pork Closed Bagel $16
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Grilled Chorizo Open Bagel $14.50
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Flat white $4

Both bagels are served with crispy little pretzels and a piece of pickled gherkin. We thinks the bagels are nice without being too chewy, the topping are certainly flavorsome. Hubby said his BBQ pulled pork is very tasty; as for mine I really love that sweet and spicy sauce. It was a decent size meal for me, but I imagine it will not enough for big eaters 😛 Coffee was great and very smooth as you’d expect from any good cafe in Melbourne, right?

Overall, we were happy with their meal but the highlight here is the coffee. In fact we came back on our last day just for the coffee \ (•◡•) /

 

Manchester Press

8 Rankins Lane, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

03 9600 4054

https://www.facebook.com/manchesterpress

Krisna Kuliner, Tuban

Here we came to (probably) the last post for our most recent Bali trip now, at last! My apology that it took forever to come to this post since I started it about two months ago 😛 The last dinner we had before departing Bali was at Krisna Kuliner in Tuban, just across the 24 hours Krisna Oleh Oleh shop.

Honestly there are too many other places to try, but we somehow landed at this place. Originally we planned to try Warung Subak for seafood, but once we got there and walked around, we ended up with other food instead. Nonetheless, most of them are satisfying to both taste buds and wallets!

Shall we start with a brief tour of Krisna Kuliner? As the name suggests, it is indeed managed by the same group as Krisna Oleh Oleh chains with same purposes. It is like a huge food court where you can find many favourite Balinese food or restaurant brands. I think they have a very smart concept that attracts tourists, where people can enjoy shopping for all those Balinese souvenirs then cross the street for a Balinese meal. Kind of like a one-stop-shop!

Here is the list of restaurants that can be found at Krisna Kuliner:

  • Bebek Tepi Sawah
  • Be Sanur
  • Warung Krishna
  • Mbok Limbok
  • Warong Miyabi
  • Betutu Men Tempeh
  • Warung Subak

We ended up ordering food from Mbok Limbok, Warung Krishna and Be Sanur. Be Sanur is famous for its fried fish (similar to Warung Mak Beng); whereas Mbok Limbok specialises on fried chicken with crunchy flakes aka kremes. Warung Krishna serves Balinese style food, such as nasi campur bali etc. Here are what we had for dinner:

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Fried fish with sambal @ Be Sanur
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Fried chicken with crispy flakes (Ayam goreng penyet kremes) @ Mbok Limbok
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Fried cabbage @ Mbok Limbok
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Grilled Chicken with sambal matah @ Warung Krishna

The fish tasted ok, a tad too dry but hot sambal saved the day. Both fried and grilled chicken were tasty – unfortunately the crunchy flakes (kremes) wasn’t as crispy as we had hoped for. The fried cabbage was soggy and oily, I’d imagine it will taste really good had it been fried correctly. It seems like they fried the cabbage before the oil got hot enough. But, all in all I wouldn’t say the food was inedible or horribly, it was ok, we got to taste a bit of everything. By the way, you can get your own rice and lalap (Indonesian salad) from the bench – so help yourself to the amount that suit you.

Total bill for the meal including two iced tea was IDR 154,100 (approx AUD 15), ain’t that wallet friendly? 😀

We were impressed with the food options, how convenience it is, and not to mention cheap! As the result, we have decided to come back here again in the next Bali trip, to try Warung Subak 🙂

Krisna Kuliner

Jl. Raya Tuban, Tuban, Kuta

Phone: +62 361 768077

http://www.krisnabali.co.id/krisna-wisata-kuliner/

[Review] Gelato Factory, Seminyak

Since we missed our favorite pistachio gelato from Gusto Gelato the other day, we set out to find other places and hopefully it can satisfy our cravings. On the second last night of our trip, we headed to Seminyak and set the Waze App to go to Lelo Lelo. I read plenty of reviews of this place about how good their gelato and was keen to try. But alas we got lost, couldn’t find it and it started sprinkling so we stopped at Gelato Factory instead.

Located at Jalan Kayu Aya, it is definitely in the prime location of Seminyak. But when were there, there are no other customers, I guess it’s rain and almost dinner time so people must have stayed inside or out to restaurants instead.

They have many flavors of colorful gelato available and all of them looks really yummy. And of course, pistachio is also there!
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Can you guess what we ordered? We both each has 1 scoop of pistachio gelato of course. Then rum and raisin for me, meanwhile coffee or tiramisu (can’t remember now) for hubby. They tasted really good actually, very rich and creamy even richer than Gusto’s. But in the meantime also packs with flavor, not just sweet 🙂 And that waffle is so good, thin, crispy and sweet with a hint of saltiness. In fact, the waffle left more impression than the gelato!

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The cafe is so bright, felt like they went overboard with lighting. But I do love the wooden shelves on the wall, do you notice the old sewing machine? Isn’t that cute?

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The lighting set up somehow reminds me of spider with it’s long legs! ಠ_ಠ
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The menu

It was still pouring after we finished our gelato and we were kind of stuck there. So hubby ordered a cup of flat white which was not bad at all. Unfortunately, this was not documented so I can’t share the picture. But the coffee totally washed down the sweetness of gelato ? Perfect end of the night and the rain also almost finally stopped, so we could head back to the hotel.

Gelato Factory

Jalan Kayu Aya No. 32, Seminyak

Phone: +62 361 739124

[Review] Lia Cafe, Jimbaran

On our previous Bali trip, we went to Warung Mami and it was mind-blowing and definitely great place for seafood lovers! On this trip to Bali however, we decided to try on another one that is listed as top 5 on TripAdvisor, Lia Cafe. We’d like to see how good it is compared to all that we have tried before that it deserves such high ranking 🙂 Also, hubby craved for crispy deep fried squid, which unfortunately is not available at Warung Mami.

We left from the hotel around 4 pm on motor bike and set to Cafe Lia directly. The trip took about 40 minutes (includes some wrong turns and some light traffic along the way). We got to the restaurant before the dinner rush, so there were still plenty of beach seating available. And we are being not much of a romantic. chose the more practical seats inside the restaurant but looking out to the beach.

We chose type of seafood we’d like and how they are cooked as we walked in to the restaurant. And soon after we sat down, the waiter brought over our drinks, complimentary fish soup, fruit salad and nuts. And not before long, our order came out together, yeehaaa!

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The fish soup, surprisingly refreshing and tasty
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Grilled fish
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Grilled prawn
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Grilled mussels
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Crispy squid – love this!
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The condiments – garlic oil, sambal matah and sambal terasi

The seafood are fresh and well-cooked, but we think both the marinate and sambals are lack of punch. It just felt a little too bland to our liking, but then again, I guess they adjust the spice to suit many international tourists hence they cannot be too spicy.

Overall it was a nice dinner, great view and we had good shares of seafood feast albeit didn’t taste as great as we had hoped for. The total spend for the dinner around AUD 44, pretty good right? But for the reasons we mentioned above, we may not be coming back, would love to try other places or just go back to Warung Mami 🙂

Lia Cafe

Jalan Pemelisan Agung, Jimbaran, Kuta Selatan, Kabupaten Badung, Bali

Phone: +62 361 709002